…Sets up Monitoring Task Force

…We Are Not Afraid of ‘No Work, No Pay’ – UNIJOS

By Emmanuel Chiekezie

The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) ESUT Branch in Monday declared a total shutdown of academic activities in ESUT as the union begin two-week warning strike.

The decision to shut-down academic activities in ESUT was reached during the ESUT Branch emergency congress held at the ESUT College of Medicine Enugu on Monday.

In declaring their total support to the national body on two-week warning strike for better condition of service and improved staff welfare, the Branch also lamented arrears of unpaid earned academic allowances by the state government totalling N4.4 billion. 

According to the acting chairperson of the branch, comrade Andrew Apeh, the Federal Government’s lack of compliance with the renegotiation agreement is a cause for serious worry and reason for the industrial action!

“As a branch of ASUU, we have only one charter. ESUT or Enugu State does not have a salary skill of its own; it is the salary skill approved by the National University Commission (NUC) that is guiding us, that is what controls our salary. And also know that this issue of salary increment is what concerns all of us.

“Our case is even more terrible because we have carried out a survey and we noticed that here in ESUT, we receive the least salary compared to other state universities. We went to Ebonyi State University (EBSU) they pay Earned Academic Allowance. Nothing like that for us here since 2008. We calculated since 2008-2014, and we discovered that our state government is owing us up to 4.4 billion.

“But now, the issue that brought us here is national obligation and we have to show solidarity,” he said

The acting Chairperson warned that all academic programmes will be suspended during the strike adding that a special monitoring team has been setup to enforce compliance.

“During this strike period, all academic activities will be suspended in line with the national directive starting from today, Monday, 13 October, 2025.

“A special monitoring team has been set up to enforce this order and ensure total compliance from members. No academic activities are expected to take place in the institution until further notice,” he told ESUT Monitor shortly after the emergency meeting on Monday in Enugu.

This declaration follows the expiration of a 14-day ultimatum given to the Federal Government, which has not been met, prompting the union’s industrial action.

Any member found violating this order will have him or herself to be blamed he said.

Meanwhile. lecturers at the University of Jos, Plateau State, have complied with the two-week warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Monday.

The union’s national secretariat had given the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to meet its demands, which include improved funding, better working conditions, and payment of earned allowances, among others.

A visit to the Bauchi Road campus on Monday, showed that most of the lecturers at the UniJos stayed away from the institution, leaving many students who came for lectures stranded in their classrooms.

Chairman of the ASUU branch at UNIJOS, Prof. Jurbe Molwus, confirmed that the lecturers were fully complying with the warning strike.

“We are complying one hundred percent with the warning strike at UNIJOS,” Prof. Molwus told Punch

 “The Federal Government has been threatening us with ‘no work no pay,’ but we are not going to back down; we are not afraid. We will continue to comply until our demands are met by the government.”

Prof. Molwus expressed the union’s determination to push for its demands, despite the threat of sanctions.

He said the lecturers are united in their resolve to seek better working conditions and improved funding for the nation’s universities.

The situation, as it was learned, was the same at the Plateau State University in Bokkos, as confirmed by the ASUU branch chairman, Dr. Monday Hassan.

“It is expected to continue for the next two weeks unless the Federal Government meets the union’s demands.”