By Gabriel Dike, Lagos
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will hold a crucial National Executive Council (NEC) meeting this weekend to take decisions affecting members’ welfare.
A member of NEC told Daily Sun that the meeting, which holds at the University of Calabar will take place on Saturday, December 3rd, 2022.
Ahead of the crucial NEC meeting, the Federal Government paid university lecturers full salaries for November.
The NEC is coming a few days after ASUU members protested against half the salary paid by the government in October and the non-implementation of their demands.
He said at the NEC meeting decisions are taken based on issues being discussed and the inputs of every member must be heard before arriving at the final decision.
Another NEC member told Daily Sun that the issue of the strike would not be known until at the meeting when reports are taken and discussion on issues are concluded.
“I don’t know about the agenda for the UNICAL meeting. It is when we get there that issues are brought up for discussion. You know we have contentious outstanding issues with the government that has not been resolved,” he stated.
Other NEC members were not ready to speculate about the agenda for the meeting and the outcome, “we are going to the NEC meeting to discuss issues affecting university education and the welfare of our members, who are not happy about the situation.”
On salary, many federal university lecturers confirmed receipt of an alert from their banks for November salaries paid in full but with distortion.
Some lecturers, who did not receive their full salary, told Daily Sun that though the government paid full salaries, many received below their monthly take-home pay.
A senior lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt forwarded the bank alert to his chairman and complained about the amount he received for November salary.
“I have been a professor for 13 years. This is my salary for November 2022. I do not have any loan obligation(s). This is the level we have descended as hardworking citizens. Yet our President can afford to go on foreign trips to take care of his health. Let me state this once more, this country is sitting on a keg of gunpowder,” the angry don noted.
ASUU Lagos Zone Coordinator, Dr Adelaja Odukoya, said “Not really. But for curious reasons, the salaries went down for some. Trying to get more details. It is the IPPIS effect.”
The former ASUU University of Ibadan chairman, Prof Deji Omole, said ‘that was the general trend. The issue is with IPPIS, you don’t know if you will receive salaries at the end of the month and if you are lucky to be paid you can’t predict how much you will be paid. The situation is very bad and demoralising.”
