The statement said the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, never directed the Accountant General of the Federation to pay lecturers half of their salaries.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Federal Government has said that lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were paid pro-rata for the month of October.
ASUU called off its eight-month-long strike in mid-October. While the lecturers are demanding payment of their salaries for the period of the strike, the government says it will enforce its “no work no pay” rule.
On Friday, it was reported that lecturers were paid half of their salaries for the month of October.
However, the spokesman of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun, explained in a statement on Saturday that pro-rata was applied because the government cannot pay lecturers for work not done.
The statement said the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, never directed the Accountant General of the Federation to pay lecturers half of their salaries.
The statement reads: “Following the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), asking ASUU to go back to work, the leadership of the union wrote to the Minister, informing him that they have suspended the strike. The Federal Ministry of Education wrote to him in a similar vein and our labour inspectors in various states also confirmed that they have resumed work.
“So, the Minister wrote to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, directing that their salaries should be restored. They were paid in pro-rata to the number of days that they worked in October, counting from the day that they suspended their industrial action. Pro-rata was done because you cannot pay them for work not done. Everybody’s hands are tied.”
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The statement also faulted comments by the Chairperson of ASUU, Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS) branch, Muhammad Al-Mustapha, accusing Ngige of biased payment of salaries to selected professional members of the union.
Oshundun said, “Those obviously being referred to by the UDUS ASUU chairperson were members of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association (MDCAN) who abstained from the eight-month strike of ASUU because they abhorred the incessant strikes by the union and its grave effects on medical education in Nigeria and production of more medical doctors.
“Accusing the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, of biased payment of salaries to selected professional members of ASUU is a barefaced distortion of facts. Mustapha said he received information that a segment of the staff in the College of Health Sciences (CHS) has been paid seven months of their withheld salaries from March to September, due to a letter written to the Minister of Finance, instructing the exemption of the under-listed staff on the application of ‘No Work, No Pay’ rule
“To set the records straight, the medical lecturers who are being referred to by the Chairperson of ASUU UDUS branch, abstained from the eight-month strike of ASUU. This has been corroborated in a press statement by the Chairman, MDCAN UdUS, Dr B. Jubrin and Secretary, Dr I. G Ango, on Friday, November 4, 2022.”
The ministry dismissed the allegation of selective treatment in payment of salaries to ASUU members, urging the media to cross-check information to avoid falsehood.
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