Half Salary: FG Should Stop Provoking Lecturers, Says Falana

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Wale Igbintade

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana yesterday warned the federal government to stop provoking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities ( ASUU) by paying them half of their salaries, adding that the lecturers should be paid their full salaries for months they were on a strike action.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the senior lawyer accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige of planning to pay members of the two Unions that were registered during the strike full salaries.

He said: “All of us have a duty to prevail on the government to stop provoking the lecturers. In fact the most embarrassing aspect is the move by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige to pay members of the two Unions that were illegally registered during the strike, even though they couldn’t call off the strike. Government has concluded arrangement to pay them, and if the government does that, the government will have itself to blame.

We must try to prevail on the government to do the needful, as the lecturers are carrying out their duties.”

On the argument that the hands of government is tied, and that only the court can decide if the lecturers can be paid while on strike, Falana challenged the Minister of Labour to justify the payment of other workers and other employees of government that went on strike before now, and were paid their salaries during strike.

He cited the case of medical doctors that went on strike last year, and in December they were paid for the period they were on strike, adding that that case of ASUU should not be be different. 

“With profound respect to the Speaker, I have referred to section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act, and applying it to the current situation, you will agree with me that it is totally inapplicable because the period that was lost is being regained. ASUU lecturers are teaching the students to cover the lost grounds, and so the students are going to write their exams very soon. They wouldn’t lose the Session. Secondly, lecturers do not only teach, they carry out research, and during the strike they were carrying out research, and examining Post graduate students. So, it not like other workers who will simply locked up the doors of to their offices, and go home. The period lost between February and October are being taught, and the students are not going to missed the session. Hence, no public university has announced the cancellation of 2021/2022 academy session. 

“The hands of the government are being tied but, the government, particularly the Ministry of Labour, that has done everything to make a mockery of ASUU. The Minister of Labour is campaigning  that the lecturers should not be paid. 

“If the lecturers are forced to go to court, the government will lose on the grounds that Section 42 of the constitution is very clear, that government shall not conferr and advantage or privileged on a sect of Nigerians, and deny same to the same group of Nigerians. You cannot pay medical doctors who went on strike, while you’re denying same to ASUU. It is unconstitutional, and illegal to treat equals unequally.”

On the way forward, Falana said: “It is for members of the ruling class, including those who are campaigning all over the place to address this matter frontally. It is not in the interest of the country, for lecturers, doctors and other workers to be forced to embark on perennial regular strikes in the country. The government has a duty to address the problems that lead to strike. 

“Also our courts must also take cognisant of the facts and circumstances of every giving strike, so that the orders of court can be fully complied with. Both the employer and the employee must be called to a round table conference all the time. That is why the National Industrial Court has arbitration chambers to promote industrial peace.But, the Minister did not go to industrial arbitration panel, but went straight to the National Industrial Court, and that was what prolonged the strike. 

“If we must stop strike, the government must learn to follow the provisions of the law, by embarking on mediation, arbitration, before going to the National Industrial Court. 

On his attendance of Labour Party programme in Abuja, Falana said: “I was invited to a program by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress in Abuja, who are the promoters of the Labour Party. I gave my speech on that occasion and made it abundantly clear that the Labour party cannot be organised like the bourgeois party in the country, but must go out to organise the people. Because, it cannot contest on the same terrain with the bourgeois political of the Constitution party.

“Section 224 of the constitution, says that the aims of government and every political party in Nigeria shall reflect chapter two of the Constitution. 

“There is no way the current capitalist system, can take Nigeria out of the woods. We are in trouble, we are in trouble. We need a revolutionary change. I have not endorsed any candidate, and if I am going to do that, I will not make it a media affair. The least I can embrace is chapter two.

“I have made the point abundantly clear that as far as the constitution is concerned, Section 14 provides that the security and welfare of the Nigerian people shall be the primary purpose of government. Section 16 provides that the management of the economy of Nigeria shall be fully in the hands of the government, not in the hands of private sector, which is the campaign of most of the political parties.  The same section provides that the wealth of our country shall be equitably distributed to promote the happiness of our people, but I haven’t seen that in the ongoing political campaigns. My position is that the only political system that can guarantee the implementation of chapter two of the Constitution is socialism. 

quo will have to be dismantled. That the current system cannot guarantee peace in the long run. Therefore we should be looking for alternative political system that can address the crisis of underdevelopment in our country. Nigeria is one of the greatest country on earth, and one of the richest but we are made poor by the kind of social economic system, the peripheral capitalist ideology that members of the ruling class imposed on our country, if we are going to move out of the mess.”