The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared that it would never believe the claim by the Federal Government to have released N50 billion to settle earned allowances of academic and non-academic staff unions of federal universities until its members begin to receive bank alerts to the effect.
National president of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Tribune at the weekend.
Recall that the Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, made a public statement that went viral last week, announcing the release of N50 billion by the government to settle unpaid earned allowances of federal university workers nationwide.
But the ASUU president, when asked for his reaction, said the union, based on past experiences, had learnt its lesson never to believe Nigerian government on pages of newspapers until concrete evidence is on the table concerning the issue at stake.
According to him, “We heard the information through the media just like every other Nigerian as there is no official communication yet to us on the matter.
“Though we had a verbal communication with the Minister of Education few days ago on the matter, it is not enough conviction to us.”
He explained reasons for not having trust in government, saying, “It is a common practice for successive governments in Nigeria to make promises and not fulfill them.”
He said it baffled the union that the Federal Government could be celebrating the release of money for earned allowances as if it is the major issue it needed to address.
He said the earned allowance is just one out of many issues and even at that, the N50 billion can only settle two out of eight years’ being owed.
He explained that ASUU had been asking successive governments to first conclude on the issue of renegotiation of their 2009 agreement, capturing new salary scale and allowances for all university workers, injection of revitalisation funds, and so forth and then talk about what ASUU members can forfeit as regards allowances on their part out of the eight years’ arrears as a sacrifice.
“So, ASUU has made it known to government to pay two years while we may decide to forgo the rest six years, but government has not done anything in that regard to date,” Osodeke noted.
Highlighting various renegotiation committees constituted by the Federal Government in the past and on the same issues, he named the ones headed by Dr Wale Babalakin, Professor Nimi Briggs, and lately, Dr Yayale Ahmed.
He said each committee assignment ended the same way with no positive outcome, especially for ASUU.
According to him, government representatives always tell ASUU that it will report back to their principals and then come back with government offer to form the basis of a fresh agreement for signatory.
“But that usually be the end of such effort for each committee as they won’t come back till another one is constituted for a round of fresh discussion,” he said, stressing, “That has been the tactics of government over the years.”
He explained that the last committee, headed by Dr Yayale Ahmed, concluded with the union since November 2024 but that up till now five full months after nothing to show for the effort.
