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Pay Lecturers Their 8 Months Withheld Salaries – ASUU Tells Tinubu

Published

1 month ago

August 25, 2023

David

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged President Bola Tinubu to without further delay ensure payment of the eight months withheld salaries of the lecturers on the account of “the 2022 patriotic strike action triggered by Government’s failure” to honor agreements reached with the Union.

ASUU has also asked the new government to put machinery in motion for the speedy conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement following the recommendations of the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee to restore the integrity of the Nigeria University System.

ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, said ASUU held its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno, State from Saturday 19th to Sunday 20th August 2023 and discussed several issues affecting the Nigerian University System (NUS) and the nation at large.

The lecturers have also kicked against the dissolution of the Governing Councils of Federal Universities by President Tinubu, saying this violated the extant laws establishing the institutions and called for the reinstatement of members of the Councils to allow for the smooth running of the universities.

Osodeke noted that the NEC of ASUU expressed serious concerns over the non-release of almost eight months’ salaries of university academics withheld on account of the 2022 patriotic strike action triggered by the Government’s failure to implement the December 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) and its truncation of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement.

While noting that there was no justification for the non-release of the withheld salaries, Osodeke reiterated that the application of the anti-labour “No-Work-No-Pay” policy to academics ignored the indisputable facts that only the teaching component of academics’ work was suspended during the strike action.