ASUU strike: We’re expecting full payment of withheld salaries, lecturers tell FG 

ASUU strike: We’re expecting full payment of withheld salaries, lecturers tell FG Give N50bn budgeted for loan to students as grant – ASUU tells FGPresident of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke.Even as they confirmed the release of additional two months withheld salaries yesterday, university lecturers have told the federal government to pay their remaining salaries, insisting that they are expecting nothing less.Their demand came following the payment of additional two months withheld salaries by the federal government over the strike they embarked upon in 2023.Recall that peeved by the incessant action of the university lecturers,then President Muhammadu Buhari had invoked a no-work,no-pay policy against the lecturers who operate under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.But President Bola Tinubu, upon taking over from Buhari,had promised to pay the withheld salaries even as he warned the lecturers against embarking on such action again without exploring ways of amicably resolving their grievances with government.The president had earlier,on October 20,202, approved the partial waiver of the “No Work, No Pay” Order instituted against striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities following their eight-month strike which began on February 14, 2022, and was terminated on October 17, 2022.“Yes,we have released an additional two months salary from the federal government. We are expecting the government to as quickly as possible, release the whole withheld salaries to us,” says an ASUU member in the University of Jos,who would prefer that his name be held in secrecy.Another lecturer from the Federal University of Lafia,also told Vanguard that they woke up Monday morning to see that they have been paid an additional two months salaries. He, however,appealed to government to consider full payment, especially in the face of the rising cost of things.“In as much as we appreciate the president for his intervention in paying us,we also expect him to release the payment covering all the months withheld,”he said, asking not to be named because he wasn’t a union official permitted to speak to the media.Government’s payment of lecturers came days after the union accused the former of failing to fulfill any of its premises, vowing to press home on its demands with another wave of strike if National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, had claimed that the last month salaries were paid to them via the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System,IPPIS,even as government had pulled the union out of the payment platform.Recall that the IPPIS released in 2006, is a government initiative aimed at streamlining payroll for government ministries, departments, and agencies.It was later extended to universities and colleges but was stifly denounced by university workers.Both the academic and non-academic staff of universities who opposed the payment option,embarked on strike even as they unveiled their different payment platforms for government to adopt.