BREAKING: FG begins payment of ASUU’s withheld salaries.

The Federal Government has commenced the payment of the withheld salaries of academics under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

Multiple sources in the academic sector confirmed the development to our correspondent in Abuja on Monday.

The chairperson of ASUU at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof. Gbolahan Bolarin, who confirmed the development on the record, said, “Yes, it is true. Payment has started rolling in.”

President Bola Tinubu Tinubu had in October 2023 approved the release of four of the eight months’ ASUU withheld workers’ salaries.

The salaries were withheld when the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari invoked a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ against some university-based unions that embarked on a strike that lasted eight months in 2022.

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, recently said the government has increased the university workers’ salaries by 35 per cent.

The minister also said the government has granted autonomy to the universities by removing them from the Integrated Payment and Payroll Information System.

He added that the universities no longer need a waiver to recruit and fill vacancies.

These resolutions were reached through informal consultations with the unions based in the tertiary institutions, Mamman said.

The Director of Press in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Bawa Mokwa confirmed the development on Monday, February 19.

Mokwa said the federal government released two-month salary arrears to the affected lecturers over the weekend while another tranche of two-month salary will be released to the lecturers later on Monday.

Mokwa disclosed that the federal government has resolved to offset the eight-month salary arrears of University lecturers who embarked on an eight-month strike during the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The OAGF spokesman did not say when the remaining four months will be paid but he assured that the federal government will pay the lecturers.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari invoked a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ against some university lecturers who embarked on a crippling strike, that lasted for eight months in 2022.

Before the federal government started paying off the withheld salaries, members of ASUU, the umbrella body of public university lecturers had threatened to embark on another strike if the federal government failed to pay them their withheld salaries.

Mokwa also added that only federal university lecturers under the IPPIS platform were being paid while state universities are the responsibility of their respective state governments.