ASUU: Eight Months Without Salary Was A Tough Experience— UNICAL Lecturer

A lecturer at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Professor Bassey Eyo Bassey of the Department of Accounting, has expressed the financial difficulty experienced during the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which lasted eight months.

“It was a tough experience to stay without salary for eight months.

“As intellectuals, we devoted the whole of our lives to academic activities, teaching, research, and community development.

“We don’t have investments outside academic work,” Bassey told Daily Post on Friday morning.

Expressing satisfaction at the suspension of the strike, he said, “The end of the strike is a welcome development, having proven a point that academics can not be intimated.”

The UNICAL Don however stated that the strike was prolonged due to the federal government's desire to find a lasting solution to the issues that lead to university strikes.

On the registration of two factional unions by the federal government to reduce the influence of ASUU, Bassey assured that “The factional unions will not be sustained as they will eventually fizzle out. They have no presence in 90 per cent of the universities.”

ASUU strike which commenced on February 14 was suspended in the early hours of Friday.