THE ongoing strike embarked upon by four university-based unions has taken a new twist, as lecturers in medical schools of some Federal Universities have distanced themselves from the industrial action.
This came on a day the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, said the Federal Government’s promise of instant reply to its submission to the committee set up to negotiate with it had not been fulfilled, nearly a month after.
In a letter to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, by the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, UMTH, branch, which Vanguard sighted, the lecturers said they never joined the strike and consequently, requested for payment of their withheld salaries from March to June 2022.
The lecturers 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.
“This is because our members (medical lecturers in the University of Maiduguri) have been emotionally doing their work, which includes teaching, training and conducting examinations of medical students throughout the period of the ongoing strike.”
