The ongoing strike embarked upon by four university-based unions has taken a new turn, as lecturers in medical schools of some Federal Universities in the country have distanced themselves from the industrial action.
This came on the day the Academic Staff Union of Universities -ASUU, said the Federal Government’s promise of a hasty reply to its submission to the committee set up to negotiate with it was yet to be fulfilled, nearly a month after.
In a letter to Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education, by the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria -MDCAN, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital -UMTH branch, the lecturers confessed to never participating in the strike action and, consequently, requested for payment of their withheld salaries from March to June 2022. The lecturers in the association also sent the same letter to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, as well as the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
The letter, dated June 29, 2022, signed by the Assistant Secretary of the union, Dr. Mohammed Abdulahi, and entitled: ‘Request for Payment of Our Withheld Salaries from March-June 2022’, read: “We, members of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital branch, majority of which form the College of Medical Sciences Academic Board, University of Maiduguri, wish to kindly request for payment of our withheld salaries from March 2022-June 2022.”
It was reliably researched that apart from UMTH, other institutions with medical colleges that pulled out of the strike were Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, ATBUTH Bauchi, and Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, UDUTH Sokoto.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, was yet to be reached for his comments at the time of this report.
