The Federal Government has debunked media reports, alleging bias in the payment of salaries of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige in a statement also debunked claims by ASUU that their members were paid half their salary for the month of October.
The Minister who described both reports as a grossly inaccurate, misleading and bare-faced distortion of facts, admitted that members of ASUU were paid their October salary pro-rata, and not half salary as the media widely reported. According to the Ministry, pro-rata was done because they cannot be paid for work not done.
Ngige further clarified that the Minister of Labour and Employment never directed the Accountant-General of the Federation to pay the university lecturers half their salary.
He said following the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, asking ASUU members 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 the Minister in a similar vein and labour inspectors in various states also confirmed that they have resumed work.
Ngige said with these facts, he wrote to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, directing that their salaries should be restored.
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Ngige has equally faulted a statement by the Chairperson of ASUU in Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto, UDUS, branch, Muhammad Al-Mustapha, accusing the Minister of Labour and Employment, of biased payment of salaries to selected professional members of the union.
Ngige pointed out that 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.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
