Follow Us on Google
From Judex Okoro, Calabar
Member representing Boki 2 State Constituency in the Cross River House of Assembly, Hon. Hilary Bisong, has donated N900,000 as palliative to the University of Calabar lecturers.
Handing over the money to the lecturers, mostly from his constitiency, on Friday in Calabar, Bisong said the gesture was meant to cushion the effect of the stoppage of their salaries for the past four months.
According to him, the lecturers, who are members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) deserved some support and care during this period of non-payment of their salaries.
“These lecturers have families to feed and medication and other utility bills to pay. Therefore, there’s need for us to support them during this period.
“The beneficiaries, who are lecturers from UNICAL, are members of my constituency.
My prayer is that the on-going negotiations between ASUU and the federal government yields the expected result so that lecturers can go back to the classroom,” Bisong said.
One of the beneficiaries, Dr Paul Bukie, commended the lawmaker for remembering them at this nick of time, adding that the donation would go a long way to assist them in meeting some of their basic needs.
Another beneficiary, Mr Jerry Etta, prayed God to bless the lawmaker for extending such a gesture to them.
ASUU embarked on indefinite strike since February to demand for the implementation of 1999
agreement it reached with the federal government to improve the standard of learning in tertiary instituions.
Due to protracted strike, the federal government invoked the no-work, no-pay-policy, leaving the lecturers without salaries for four months running.
