Half-Salary: Buhari Gets Paid Even While In London – Shehu Sani Backs Varsity Lecturers

Shehu Sani, a former Kaduna Central lawmaker, has asked the Federal Government to pay public university lecturers their eight-month salary after they called off their strike.

WITHIN NIGERIA reports that the 8th National Assembly member said this on Sunday, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement that the government would not pay Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) members’ salaries for the months they did not work.

Remember that ASUU began industrial action on February 14, 2022, and ended it on October 14, 2022, in response to a court order.

Following their reinstatement, the government only paid them for 18 working days in October, depriving them of their salary for the previous seven months.

Nigerians have reacted differently to the development since then.

Sani responded on social media, saying that no public officeholder is paid based on the number of days worked and that lecturers should be paid their full salary.

The President is in London and he is paid. No political office holder is paid based on the days he worked. Pay University lecturers their full wages, Sani’s tweet reads.

The President is in London and he is https://t.co/w1ToB1Kl95 political office holder is paid based on the days he https://t.co/xtL58ZKqMX University lecturers their full wages.

— Senator Shehu Sani (@ShehuSani) November 6, 2022

The ASUU chapter at the University of Jos (UNIJOS) declared an indefinite sit-in order for its members on Friday.

According to WITHIN NIGERIA, the order follows the Federal Government’s payment of half of university lecturers’ October salaries.

In a statement, the UNIJOS ASUU insisted that the order would be in effect until the government paid its withheld salaries due to the federal government’s no work, no pay policy.

Prof Lazarus Maigoro, the chairperson of the UNIJOS ASUU branch, who signed the statement, stated that one of the agreements reached the meeting was that 50% of lecturers’ withheld salaries would be paid to ASUU members immediately after the strike was called off.

However, Maigoro, who was dissatisfied with the payment of half salaries to ASUU members, pointed out that members of staff at some Agricultural Research Institutes have been on strike for nearly a year and have been receiving their salaries regularly, so he is perplexed as to why the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, is adamant on withholding ASUU members’ salaries.

According to Maigoro, the academic body is also aware that Ngige wrote a memo to the Accountant General requesting that ASUU members be paid only from the day the strike was suspended.