The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is set to receive long-awaited salary payments as the Federal Government begins the disbursement of their withheld salaries.
Multiple sources within the academic sector in Abuja confirmed this development to The PUNCH on Monday.
Prof. Gbolahan Bolarin, the ASUU chairperson at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, affirmed the news, stating, “Yes, it is true. Payment has started rolling in.”
In October 2023, President Bola Tinubu approved the release of four out of the eight months’ worth of salaries withheld from ASUU members. These salaries had been withheld following the invocation of a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari during an eight-month strike by some university-based unions in 2022.
Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, recently announced that the government had increased salaries for university workers by 35%. He also mentioned the government’s decision to grant autonomy to universities by removing them from the Integrated Payment and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
Furthermore, the Minister highlighted that universities no longer require a waiver to recruit and fill vacancies. Mamman clarified that these resolutions were achieved through informal consultations with unions in tertiary institutions.