President Bola Tinubu has approved the payment of four out of eight months withheld salaries of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in September last year invoked the “No Work, No Pay” policy in a bid to force the university lecturers to suspend their eight-month strike at the time.
ASUU declared an indefinite strike in the nation’s universities on February 14, 2022, following the Federal Government’s failure to honour the agreements reached by both parties.
The union suspended the strike on October 17, 2022, following appeals by the government and other well-meaning Nigerians.
The government, however, withheld the lecturers’ salaries for the entire period of the strike.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Ajuri Ngelale, confirmed the development in a statement titled “President Tinubu approves partial waiver of the no work, no pay order on ASUU members; orders release of four months of withheld salary.”
The statement read: “The waiver will allow for the ASUU members to receive four months of salary accruals out of the eight months of salary which was withheld during the eight-month industrial action undertaken by the union.
“President Tinubu directed the grant of the waiver with a mandatory requirement that the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment must secure a Document of Understanding establishing that this exceptional waiver will be the last one to be granted to ASUU and all other Education Sector Unions.
“In invoking the Principle of the Presidential Prerogative of Mercy, the President seeks to mitigate the difficulties being felt during the implementation of key economic reforms in the country, as well as his recognition of the faithful implementation of terms agreed upon during the deliberations between ASUU and the Federal Government of Nigeria.”