Two Weeks After, Govt. Yet To Pay N22.1bn Earned Allowances- ASUU, SSANU

Two weeks after the Federal Government promised to pay N22.1 billon Earned Academic Allowances to workers in federal universities, the pledge has not been fulfilled.

This is just as the staff unions in the university system are poised to meet later this week to decide on the next line of action.

The unions are the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU; Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU; Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Allied Institutions, NASU, and National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT.

National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, confirmed that the union was yet to receive any money from the government.

“The promised has not been fulfilled. We are going to meet later in the week to appraise the situation,” he said.

On the issue raised by other unions regarding the sharing formula for the money, Osodeke noted that his union had no grouse with any other union and that any union not satisfied with whatever it is given should know the appropriate quarters to approach.

On his part, National President of SSANU, Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim, also confirmed that no money had been paid to them by the government.

He said: “The money should not be paid to the unions. The various universities know who their workers are.

“We are also insisting that the sharing formula is unacceptable to us.

“We also want the result of the forensic audit done in all the universities after the second tranche of the allowance paid is made public. We know what we are saying, ASUU members were overpaid.”

Ibrahim also said the Joint Action Committee, JAC, set up by SSANU and NASU to pursue their cause, would meet later in the week to assess the situation.

Recall that the sharing template by which ASUU is getting 75 percent of the allowance and the three other unions raking the remaining has caused a lot of disaffection between the staff unions.

This development is so far cause another round of industrial unrest in the nation’s ivory towers.