ASUU To Hold NEC Meeting Over Half-Salary
THERE were indications this weekend that the resumption of academic activities in the country’s universities could be truncated once again, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is set to summon an emergency meeting of its National Executive Council (NEC), following the alleged payment of half salaries to the lecturers for the month of October this year by the Federal Government.
ASUU recently suspended its eight months industrial action following a directive by Court of Appeal, which upheld an earlier order to that effect from the National Industrial Court.
Although no date has been fixed for the NEC meeting, but it was gathered that the decision to convene a meet was a result of the surprise that greeted members when some of them got an alert of half salaries in their accounts for the month of October 2022.
One of the academic staff members, who preferred anonymity, said: “I was shocked when I received an alert from my bank and noticed it was half payment; they didn’t even talk about the backlog of the eight months of the strike.”
Also confirming the information, another source said: “It is true, I received half. We are waiting for the decision of the national body; we are very angry at the moment.”
ASUU National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, had earlier confirmed the development, saying: “Half salaries were paid, no reasons were given whatsoever. We learnt that (Chris) Ngige (the Minister of Labour and Employment) wrote the office of the Accountant General of the Federation and Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and told them to only pay us for the period when we called off the strike.
“We heard there was a letter to that effect but we haven’t gotten it yet. We are going to summon a meeting.”
