The House Speaker added that the “Executive and the House of Representatives have worked to address the issues that led to the strike”.
A former lawmaker who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th Assembly on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Shehu Sani, has faulted the Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, for justifying the payment of half salaries to university lecturers by the Nigerian Government.
The university lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) called off their eight-month-old strike in October hoping that after a series of negotiations with the government, they would receive full salary payment for the months they were on strike.
However, the federal government which had during the strike and negotiations insisted on a “No work, no pay” policy, paid the ASUU members half salaries for October when the union called off the strike.
The half-salary payment has since generated controversies and ASUU, after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Monday, faulted the government’s action, describing it as an aberration and contravention of all known rules of engagement.
Meanwhile, the House Speaker, Gbajabiamila, in a statement on Monday said, “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.”
The House Speaker added that the “Executive and the House of Representatives have worked to address the issues that led to the strike”.
He added that they were working on the 2023 Appropriations Bill, to provide an increment in the welfare package of university lecturers.
He said apart from the N170 billion included in the bill to take care of the lecturers’ welfare, an additional N300 billion is included as 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 adoption of elements of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). This effort is being supervised by the Chairman of the House Committee on Tertiary Education, Rep. Aminu Suleiman,” he added.
Reacting to the House Speaker’s statement, Senator Sani asked how the lawmaker could defend the government’s action against ASUU, saying members of the House and the Senate receive full payments even when they are absent from the chambers without a valid reason.
The former lawmaker said, “A System where no legislator is paid half salary for absence from the chamber during session, even for no valid reason, the speaker is justifying half salary for the university lecturers.”