The Federal Government may have decided to stone-wall all striking unions of workers in the university system following revelations that it has quietly moved against them by turning off their financial sustenance via either a steep cut or total stoppage of salaries.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied Educational Institutions and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) are some of the unions in the university system current on one form of work to rule or the other.
Checks by The Dream Daily Newspaper in universities across the country showed that ASUU members, for instance, were last paid in February, meaning that the Federal Government has implemented its no-work-no-pay stance even while telling the nation it was engaging ASUU with a view to resolving the logjam.
A lecturer in one of the universities in the north (name withheld) told The Dream Daily Newspaper: “It (salary) was stopped since last month, I wonder why it’s only making headlines this month. NAAT received half, SSANU, NASU received full. ASUU nothing.”
Another varsity teacher also said: “Yes. They effected it (salary stoppage) since March. For NAAT which embarked on strike mid-March, they were paid 32% of their salary. By the end of this month, we (ASUU members) would have spent two months without pay.
And a female lecturer simply quipped “yes” to The Dream Daily’s enquiry on the salary stoppage in her university.
A member of NASU who does not want her name to appear in print also told The Dream Daily: “I was paid only half of my March salary. But when I printed out my pay-slip from the IPPIS platform I was shocked to find that IPPIS said they have paid me full salary! Something is going on. I think some corrupt people are using the opportunity of this strike to steal our salary in Abuja.”
ASUU had embarked on a four-week warning strike on February 14 which was extended at its expiration, following the failure of government to address the contentious issues that led to the strike.
The NAAT, SSANU and NASU are also on some sort of warning or long strikes in the public universities nationwide.
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