Education

ASUU strike: FG begins payment of salary arrears.

Nwagboso Ifeanyi

September 8, 2017

NG Crew.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris
Ngige, has disclosed that the Federal Government
has begun the payment of salary arrears of the
striking university teachers.
But the lecturers, under the aegis of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) insisted that
the Federal Government must remit N200 billion
into the universities’ revitalisation fund before the
ongoing strike can be suspended.
ASUU leaders, who came to the negotiation table
with a former President of the union, Prof. Assisi
Asobie and President of the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, explained that the
payment of their salary arrears without getting a
commitment to the payment of the N200 billion for
the rehabilitation of the universities would portray
the union as being only concerned with the welfare
of its members and not the general improvement
of the teaching conditions in the institutions.
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Issues in contention include the registration of
Nigerian Universities Pension Management
Company (NUPEMCO); fractionalisation of
salaries in federal universities and gross under-
funding/non-funding of state universities and
arrears and the implementation of earned
academic allowance; and the non-release of funds
for the revitalisation of public universities as spelt
out in the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding.
Other issues are guidelines for the retirement
benefits of professors in line with the 2009 FGN/
ASUU agreement; Treasury Single Account (TSA)
and withdrawal of support for universities’ staff
primary schools.