The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said it is tired of the federal government’s unfaithfulness to promises made to the union.
In September 2023, the government announced an upward review of the salaries of tertiary institution workers by 35 per cent and backdated to January 2023.
It also promised to pay four months’ salaries out of the seven and half months withheld salaries during the 2022 national strike.
Some other demands of ASUU, including payment of Earned Academic Allowance, and the unprogressive renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement had at various times led to incessant strikes in the government-owned universities.
On the contrary, ASUU, national president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview, complained that the FG did not fulfill any of the promises above.
He maintained that there had been no official communication from FG, adding that everything was at a standstill.
Osodeke said, “Not even one thing has been done by FG. No official communication. We(ASUU-National Executive Council) are meeting this February 2024 to discuss and decide on these issues. The EAA, withheld salary, wage award, 25% and 35% salary increment which was backdated to January 2023 were not paid, nothing has been paid.”
Also speaking, the Chairman, of ASUU-University of Lagos, Prof. Kayode Adebayo, reiterated it was embarrassing for the government to always go to the media and make promises it was not ready to implement.
Adebayo maintained that their hope was failing, saying the government also promised to pay a palliative of N35,000 for six months but only did so for two months.
“Everything has been at a standstill, nothing is happening, we are consulting nationally and we are holding our NEC meeting soon, we will decide the next line of action at the NEC meeting.
“We want to explore every option. The government is not responding to us but going to the media to make propaganda, we are tired. The only thing they did for us was the removal from IPPIS. But as for the seven-and-a-half salary, they didn’t pay. They went on to talk about the upward review of salary of between 25% to 35% to be backdated to January 2023, till now, nothing has been paid. It is just a statement in the news. They also promised 35k palliative, and they managed to pay two months out of six months. They are not talking about Earned Academic Allowance and the like. We keep hoping till hope fails,” he said.
