ASUU Threatens Industrial Action Over Non-payment Of Members’ Salaries

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on an industrial action if the 13 months’ salaries of over 1,000 of its members across the country were not paid.

Chairman of the University of Jos chapter of the union, Lazarus Maigoro, who revealed this in a statement on Saturday, in Jos, added that the Federal Government had also withheld the check-off dues of the affected members.

He accused the Accountant General of Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, for systematically denying the lecturers their remuneration, even after government and the union had reached an agreement on non-victimisation of its members following their last strike.

The chairman alleged that the affected members were being threatened to either enrol into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform, or have their salaries withheld.

He explained that despite the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari, that members of the union be paid their full remuneration, the AGF had denied the affected union members their pay, in complete violation of the terms of the agreement signed between the union and government.

Maigoro said that the office of the AGF had continued to feed the public and some sections of government with false reasons over the matter, such as incorrect BVN numbers, incorrectly spelt names and their sequential arrangement, among others.

He, however, added that such excuses were not tenable, because the bursary departments of their various institutions had submitted the names severally to the authorities, but the problem had continued to persist.

Maigoro also said that the inability of government to pay other allowances, such as sabbatical, visiting, part time and contract staff was also destroying the university system in the country.

He said that apart from the refusal to pay the salaries of members, the lack of payment of allowances of sabbatical, visiting, part-time, contract staff is further impacting negatively the federal universities in Nigeria, and this is all because of IPPIS.

Maigoro called on President Buhari to wade into the matter, in order to save the affected members, as well as the future of education in Nigeria.