Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house of representatives,
says interventions are being made to resolve the issue of payment of salaries
of lecturers.
The speaker said this in a statement on Monday.
The development comes after members of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) had tackled the federal government for not paying
them full salaries.
ASUU had embarked on strike on February 14 to press home the
demand for improved funding for universities, review of salaries for lecturers,
among other issues.
Amid the back-and-forth over the union’s demands, the
federal government had threatened not to pay the lecturers for the strike
period, but a review of the decision was said to be under consideration.
On October 14, the union suspended its strike and directed
members to resume work immediately.
However, the federal government had recently paid the
lecturers “half” of one month pay.
“When the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) 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,” the statement by Gbajabiamila reads.
“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 one hundred and seventy billion naira
(N170,000,000,000.00) to provide a level of increment in the welfare package of
university lecturers.
“The Bill also includes additional three hundred billion
naira (N300,000,000,000.00) in revitalisation funds to improve the
infrastructure and operations of federal universities.
“Furthermore, the
House of Representatives has convened the Accountant General of the Federation
(AGF), the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) and other stakeholders to
facilitate the Federal Republic of Nigeria adoption of elements of the
University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the Integrated
Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
“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
favourable consideration by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR
who has manifested his desire to what is prudent and necessary to resolve all
outstanding issues.”
Gbajabiamila also urged the union not to consider disrupting
the academic calender of universites.
“Implementing
meaningful change takes time, especially when appropriations and modifications
to systems such as IPPIS are required,” he said.
“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.”
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