Just two weeks after the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, called off its eight-month strike, a new round of crisis is brewing in Nigeria’s public universities.
The lecturers under the umbrella of ASUU were perplexed on Monday after the Federal Government paid its members’ salaries for only 18 working days in the month of October.
Remember that the union called off its eight-month strike on October 14, 2022, after the intervention of House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila.
According to the DAILY POST, the Nigerian government insisted on implementing the ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy during the time the university workers were absent from their duties.
However, after all negotiations had failed, the Speaker waded into the squabble between the Union and the FG.
Gbajabiamila was able to negotiate an acceptable agreement between the duo within a few days of his mediation, with a promise to pay the university workers their withheld salaries for the months they didn’t work.
However, on Thursday, reports surfaced that the FG did not keep its word, as ASUU members were only paid for half a month.
A senior ASUU member at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, confirmed the development to DAILY POST on condition of anonymity.
He mentioned that the government only paid half of his salary in October.
“From what I know, those who have called me said they were only paid for eighteen days in October,” he said.
“Yes, I only received 18 working days salary, that’s what they paid me; my colleague received the same,” said another academic staff member.
On its Twitter page, the UNILAG chapter of the union called the development “insensitive and disheartening.”
The UNILAG branch chairperson, Dele Ashiru wrote: “The leadership of the union at the national level has been duly informed about this unfortunate development and they are on top of the issue”.
At the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, (UDU), Sokoto, the Union has accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, of attempts to create disharmony among its members.
There were reports of selective and biased payment of lecturers’ salaries at the university, with some lecturers in the College of Public Health and Medicine receiving all their outstanding salaries.
Ngige had said those categories of workers didn’t participate in the Union’s strike.
Amid low morale among the returning members of the Union, the recent development may complicate the crisis in the public universities.
Meanwhile, ASUU has called a nationwide Congress in its various branches on Tuesday next week to decide what action it will take.