Gbajabiamila explains why the FG won’t fully pay ASUU

Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has suggested that the Federal Government might decide not to fully compensate university lecturers for the eighth month of the Academic Staff Union of Universities strike.

Recall that we earlier reported that the speaker of the house of representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, claims that efforts are being made to find solutions to the problem of paying lecturers’ salaries.

In a statement released on Monday, Gbajabiamila claimed that Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retired), the president, was expected to approve the proposal of “partial” payment made to him.

The change occurred after Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) members criticized the federal government for failing to pay them their full salaries. ASUU had gone on strike on February 14 to emphasize its demands, which included increased funding for universities and a review of lecturers’ pay among other things.

The federal government had threatened not to pay the lecturers for the strike period during the back-and-forth over the union’s demands, but a review of the decision was reportedly being considered.

On October 14, the union called off its strike and told its members to go back to work right away. The lecturers had recently received “half” a month’s pay from the federal government, though.

The Gbajabiamila statement titled, ‘Statement by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila on the Resolution of Outstanding Issues between the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Federal Government of Nigeria,’ read, “When the Academic Staff Union of Universities called off their industrial action three weeks ago, it meant that academic activities could resume in our nation’s public universities, and students could return to their academic pursuits after the prolonged interruption. This decision was rightly heralded nationwide as the correct decision.

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“Since then, the Executive and the House of Representatives have worked to address the issues that led to the strike. We are currently working on the 2023 Appropriations Bill, which includes the sum of N170,000,000,000 to provide a level of increment in the welfare package of university lecturers. The bill also includes additional N300,000,000,000 in revitalization funds to improve the infrastructure and operations of federal universities.

“Furthermore, the House of Representatives has convened the Accountant General of the Federation, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, and other stakeholders to facilitate the adoption of elements of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System. This effort is being supervised by the Chairman of the House Committee on Tertiary Education, Rep. Aminu Suleiman.

“The Executive position that it is not obligated to pay salaries to the adoption of elements of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System. This effort is being supervised by the Chairman of the House Committee on Tertiary Education, Rep. Aminu Suleiman.

“The Executive position that it is not obligated to pay salaries to lecturers for the time spent on strike is premised on the law and the government’s legitimate interest in preventing moral hazard and discouraging disruptive industrial actions. Nonetheless, interventions have been made to explore the possibility of partial payments to the lecturers. We look forward to a favorable consideration by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, who has manifested his desire for what is prudent and necessary to resolve all outstanding issues.

“Implementing meaningful change takes time, especially when appropriations and modifications to systems such as IPPIS are required. Therefore, I urge all parties to be patient and grant each other the presumption of goodwill to the extent necessary to achieve our shared objectives. This is not a time for political brinkmanship. There is no more pressing objective than to preclude the possibility of further disruptions to the academic calendar of the universities. We must prevent this possibility by all means, as these disruptions risk the promise and potential of our nation’s youth.”