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Weeks after suspending the strike that paralysed academic activities of Nigeria Universities for several months, the Academic Staff Union of Universities may likely embark on another strike. The Union is set to summon an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council following the decision of the Federal Government to pay the lecturers half salaries for the month of October, 2022, The PUNCH can report
Though no date has been fixed yet, our correspondent gathered that the decision to convene a meeting followed the drama which erupted when members of the union received half salaries in their accounts.
A source who spoke in Abuja noted that half salaries were paid, “I was shocked when I received an alert from my bank and I noticed that I got half salary; they didn’t even talk about the backlog of the eight months of the strike.
Another source said, “It is true, I received half, In fact, some professors received salaries of N121,000; this is the fact, we are waiting for the decision of the national body, our members are very angry right now.”
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Speaking with our correspondent in Abuja, ASUU National President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, confirmed the development.
“Half salaries were paid, no reasons were given whatsoever. We learnt that Ngige wrote the office of the Accountant General and Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system 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.”
When our correspondent reached out to the Ministry of Education which serves as the supervisory ministry for universities, the spokesperson of the ministry said, “We don’t pay salary at the Ministry of Education. Kindly direct your question to the office of the Accountant General.”
