Why no-work-no-pay policy should start from Buhari – Sowore

By Gbenga Oloniniran

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, while speaking on the issues between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, said the ‘no work, no pay’ policy reportedly enforced on the lecturers ought to be applicable to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

Sowore, who spoke at the presidential town hall organised by Daria Media and Cabal Entertainment on Friday evening, insisted that if the FG must enforce the ‘no work, no pay’ policy, the enforcement must start from Buhari because he barely worked.

While fielding a question on the government’s insistence on enforcing the policy on ASUU, who embarked on strike for eight months, and how he could handle it differently, Sowore maintained that Nigerian workers must be paid when their industrial action was based on a just course.

Sowore said, “When the strike is just, you will have to pay the strikers. They didn’t want to do this, it was the government that forced them into it.

“If you want to start the enforcement of not paying the people who are not working, I think the President should be number one because he barely works. And the truth is that these are the things that escalate the problems. You can’t keep escalating the problems by engaging in the things that made them.

“Our higher institutions are too important to be played with the technical part of laws. Let’s put the money they asked for. They are specific about how much they want. Let’s find the money and give it to them. Their demands have been the same since the 1990s.”