The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has issued a threat to commence a strike if the administration of President Bola Tinubu fails to pay public university lecturers their withheld salaries within two weeks.
ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke expressed discontent over the government’s partial payment of withheld salaries on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program. He argued that it is unjust for the Federal Government to pay only four months of the seven-and-a-half months’ withheld salaries from 2022, especially since university lecturers have compensated for the missed work period.
Osodeke emphasized that all Nigerian public universities are currently in the 2023/2024 academic year and will progress to the 2024/2025 academic year by September/October. This progression indicates that the work not completed during the 2022 strike has since been made up.
Lecturers have sacrificed personal time, forgoing vacations and leave for the past three to four years, to cover the missed work. Osodeke asserted that paying only four months out of the seven-and-a-half months’ withheld salaries is unfair to lecturers. He noted that the two-week ultimatum to the government began on May 13, 2024.
In 2022, academic and non-academic unions in Nigeria went on an eight-month strike to demand better welfare packages. The then President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration responded with a ‘no work, no pay’ policy. However, in October 2023, President Bola Tinubu approved the release of four months of the withheld salaries.
ASUU members received payment for these four months, while members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) did not receive any payments. The government considered offering half pay to the non-academic unions.
Osodeke insisted that ASUU members must be fully compensated for the entire duration of the 2022 strike.
He contended that the Tinubu administration has not done lecturers any favors by paying only part of the withheld salaries. He argued that if the government can afford large-scale infrastructure projects, it should also find funds to pay university workers.
Osodeke called for the payment of the remaining three-and-a-half months’ salaries, stating that since lecturers have completed the work, they should be paid accordingly. He warned that if the government does not comply, ASUU would adopt a ‘no pay, no work’ stance.
Osodeke lamented the exodus of lecturers from Nigeria due to inadequate remuneration, highlighting that a lecturer’s salary has significantly decreased in value since the 2009 agreement.
The ASUU president also criticized the lack of functional Governing Councils in universities, claiming that many illegal contracts and recruitments have occurred since the National Universities Commission (NUC) dissolved these councils following President Tinubu’s directive.
Osodeke argued that no university should operate without a Governing Council and that it should not take 11 months to reconstitute them.
He explained that the councils comprise six government-appointed members and about 10 or 11 elected members from the universities, and thus, the government should not arbitrarily dissolve them.
Osodeke stated that numerous illegal recruitments and contract awards have been made, and ASUU possesses evidence of these actions.
He underscored that ASUU cannot support such illegality and reiterated the two-week ultimatum. If the government does not address these issues, ASUU will consider further action.
Furthermore, Osodeke revealed that there has been no formal meeting between ASUU and any current government bodies.
He concluded by urging the government to finalize the agreement negotiations that began in 2017, reinstate the dissolved Governing Councils, and pay the owed earned academic allowances.
