ASUU members & university lecturers begin to receive payment of eight months Buhari withheld salaries

Nigerian lecturers have started receiving alerts as the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government commenced the payment of monies owed to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The development was confirmed by many sources in the academic sector who spoke with The PUNCH on Monday, February 19, 2024.

The chairperson of ASUU at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof. Gbolahan Bolarin, who confirmed the development on the record, said, “Yes, it is true. Payment has started rolling in.”

Recall that in October 2023, President Bola Tinubu approved the release of four of the eight months ASUU withheld workers’ salaries.

The salaries were withheld when the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari invoked a ‘No work, no pay policy’ against some university-based unions that embarked on a strike that lasted eight months in 2022.

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, recently said the government has increased the university workers’ salaries by 35 percent.

The minister also said the government has granted autonomy to the universities by removing them from the Integrated Payment and Payroll Information System.

He added that the universities no longer need a waiver to recruit and fill vacancies.

These resolutions were reached through informal consultations with the unions based in the tertiary institutions, Mamman said.