The Federal Government has started disbursing the withheld salaries of academics affiliated with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Multiple sources within the academic sector confirmed this development in Abuja on Monday.
Prof. Gbolahan Bolarin, the ASUU chairperson at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, officially affirmed the news, stating, “Yes, it is true. Payment has started rolling in.”
The approval for the release of four out of the eight months’ withheld salaries was granted by President Bola Tinubu in October 2023.
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The salaries were initially withheld during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, invoking a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ against university-based unions engaged in an eight-month strike in 2022.
Minister of Education Tahir Mamman recently announced a 35% increase in university workers’ salaries, along with granting autonomy to universities by removing them from the Integrated Payment and Payroll Information System.
He emphasized that universities no longer require a waiver for recruitment and filling vacancies, and these decisions were made through informal consultations with tertiary institution unions.
