ASUU President said if the Federal Government can award road contracts worth trillions, billions for university workers should not be a problem.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has issued a two-week ultimatum to the President Bola Tinubu administration to pay public university lecturers their withheld salaries or face a strike.
ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke criticized the Federal Government for paying only four months of the lecturers’ withheld 2022 salaries, leaving three-and-a-half months unpaid.
“It’s not about paying four months out of the seven-and-a-half months’ withheld salaries,” Osodeke said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday. He argued that public universities have completed the work missed during the 2022 strike and should be compensated.
“Every university in Nigeria today is in the 2023/2024 academic year, and by September/October, they will be in the 2024/2025 academic year. This means that all the work missed during the strike has been covered by making sacrifices. None of our members have taken leave in the past three to four years to make up for this time. Paying only four months of the seven-and-a-half months’ withheld salaries is unfair,” Osodeke stated, adding that the ultimatum began on May 13, 2024.
In 2022, academic and non-academic unions in Nigeria went on an eight-month strike for better welfare packages. The administration of then-President Muhammadu Buhari implemented a ‘no work, no pay’ policy against the unions. However, in October 2023, President Bola Tinubu approved the release of four months of the withheld salaries.
While ASUU members received four months of their withheld salaries, members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) were not paid. Education Minister Tahir Mamman suggested the government might consider half pay for these unions.
Osodeke emphasized that ASUU members must be fully paid for the entire period of the 2022 industrial action. He argued that the Tinubu administration has not done lecturers any favors by releasing only four months of withheld salaries.
Osodeke pointed out that the government’s ability to award road contracts worth trillions indicates it should have no problem allocating billions for university workers.
“We don’t want to hear that ‘we don’t have money’ because if a government can award road contracts worth ₦15 or ₦13 trillion, asking for ₦200bn for Nigerian universities should be manageable. Pay the remaining three-and-a-half months’ salaries, as we have completed the work. If not, we will adopt a ‘no pay, no work’ stance,” he said.
He also highlighted that many lecturers are leaving the country due to poor remuneration. “A lecturer still earns about $300. It was $1500 when we negotiated the agreement in 2009,” he noted.
Osodeke criticized the absence of functional Governing Councils in universities, leading to illegal contracts and recruitments. The National Universities Commission (NUC) dissolved the Governing Councils of all federal universities 11 months ago, following a directive from President Tinubu.
“Nobody anticipated that universities would operate without Governing Councils for 11 months. This has led to illegal employment and contract awards. It doesn’t take 11 months to constitute a Governing Council. No university in the world operates without one,” Osodeke stated.
He noted that the council for each university typically consists of six government-appointed members and 10 or 11 elected members from the university, making government representatives a minority.
“People were recruited, and contracts were awarded illegally. We have evidence. If these illegalities and other issues are not resolved within two weeks, our union will meet to decide on further action,” he warned.
Osodeke also mentioned that there has been no formal meeting between ASUU and the current government. “We have exhausted all other avenues,” he said.
“The negotiation of the agreement that started in 2017 should be concluded, the dissolved Governing Councils should be reinstated, and owed academic allowances should be paid,” he concluded
