Reduce senators’ and representatives’ pay by 50% to comply with ASUU’s demands, says Ndume

Senator Ali Ndume (APC-Borno South) has proposed a 50% pay cut for members of the national legislature to fund the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) urgent demands.

In response to the claimed half salary for the academic staff in Maiduguri on Thursday, Ndume made the call.

The federal government should organize a powerful standing committee of reputable educators and patriotic Nigerians, suggested Ndume, a former Senate leader, so that they may meet with the ASUU leadership to discuss any lingering problems.

“Let it be, even if it means that the National Assembly will receive lower sitting allowances or just be paid on a casual basis whenever they convene in the lower and upper chambers, to pay off the arrears owed to the ASUU.
It will serve Nigerians’ larger national interests.

“We just meet twice or so a week and get compensated accordingly.

“Civil servants who performed their duties from home during the COVID-19 epidemic and received full pay and benefits each month.

“So why is it that the federal government is going to reduce university teachers’ wages because they participated in a legal strike? They are battling for their rights and privileges under the Constitution. Some of the participants in the talks don’t have kids attending public colleges.

“How can you be discussing something in which you have no interest? My children all attend schools outside of the nation; most politicians are also like that, and they frequently engage in negotiations. I don’t have any children in public schools.

“With this, in my opinion, we won’t progress. Even if we succeed, it will only be momentary since other individuals will be entertaining the crowd.

He claimed that while some of them would pretend to be defending the interests of the federal government and others would pretend to be protecting the interests of the general public, they were ultimately just pandering to the crowd.