Reported by: Febechukwu.
The face off between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government may be far from being over, following a new contentious issue of the payment of half salaries for the month of October 2022 to the lecturers.
ASUU National President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeka confirmed the development to africafirstnews.com in Abuja on Saturday.
He accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige of stoking the new trouble. "Half salaries were paid, no reasons were given whatsoever. We learnt that Ngige (Minister of Labour and Employment) wrote the office of Accountant General and Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and told them to only pay us for the period when we called off the strike".
Already, the University of Jos chapter of the Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) has issued a directive stopping lecturers and professors from reporting for duty until their unpaid salaries have been resolved with the Federal Government.
The University of Jos ASUU Chairman, Dr. Lazarus Maigoro told our Correspondent in the Cold city that the decision was taken on Friday by the Union, after some lecturers were paid half salaries, while others are yet to receive anything.
Maigora said going by the updated academic schedule established by the University's Senate for the 2020/2021 academic year, lectures should have begun, but was not possible because lecturers have not received salaries which formed the basis for the Congress convened on Friday, where members unanimously agreed to stay at home until the Federal Government pay them the backlog of their salaries.
ASUU had suspended their eight (8) months strike on 14th October 2022 following interventions by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila who brokered a truce with the assurance that the "No work, no pay" policy of the Federal government will not apply as one of the terms, but it seems the authorities are backing out of that understanding.
