CONSIDER PLIGHTS OF STUDENTS AND PARENTS, UNIJOS VC BEGS LECTURERS TO SUSPEND SIT-AT-HOME 

Vice-chancellor of the University of Jos, Tanko Ishaya has appealed to the institution’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to be compassionate with students and resume lectures.

The national body of ASUU suspended its eight-month-old strike on October 14, 2022, following a court order directing union members to resume lectures and an intervention by the House of Representatives leadership.

Part of the agreement the union reached with the leadership of the House of Representatives was that 50 per cent of members’ eight months withheld salaries would be paid.

ASUU had asked its members across universities not to return to class, having been paid half salaries for October.

The University of Jos chapter declared on Friday, November 4, 2022, that its members would not return to class unless the last agreement reached was adhered to.

Ishaya while speaking to newsmen on Monday, November 7, 2022, said that the lecturers needed to return to class to prevent university education from collapsing.

“ASUU should please be considerate and compassionate with students and parents and return to the classroom. I appeal that it allows academic activities to go on while further negotiations with the government on payment of withheld salaries continue,” stated the VC. “We have asked these students to resume. It will be traumatic to ask them to return home again, having spent eight months at home already.”

He noted that ASUU’s struggles were for improving education and appealed to the federal government to address its demands and stop treating university lecturers like other civil servants.