The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Federal University of Technology Minna, Chapter, has called on the Federal Government not to treat its members as casual workers.
The Chairman of the union, Gbolahan Bolarin, who made this known during a protest in Minna on Friday, described the payment of half salaries to university lecturers as demeaning.
“Our members were paid for the number of days they had worked and this is unfortunate and demeaning to us,” Bolarin said.
“FUT Minna has resolved to reject in totality the reduction of Nigerian scholars to casual workers and attempts by the minister of labor and employment to destroy our public universities under any guise. We will not allow Chris Ngige to ridicule us because Nigerian lecturers are among the best in the world,” he added.
Speaking further, he noted that the half salary paid to lectures was an insult to academia, and Nigeria.
Bolarin said the Federal Government was pushing lecturers to a point where the aggression would be shifted to innocent students, adding that the union would do everything to resist the plans of the government.
Also speaking, the President of the Students Union Government at the university, Shuaib Yahaya, said, “The survival of the Nigerian university system is not only the responsibility of the lecturers but the students and everyone.”
