Unpaid Allowances, Nigerian Versity Workers Demands N62 Billion From FG

The non-academic workers’ unions NASU of Nigeria’s universities has demanded its outstanding N62bn earned allowances from the Federal Government.

The unions under the umbrella of the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions and the National Association of Academic Technologists have called on the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to ensure the payment of the allowances before handing over to the new administration.

Mr. Samson Ugwoke, spokesman for the unions, who is the President of SSANU, made the call in a document signed by him, the President of NASU, Comrade Ladi Iliya and her NAAT counterpart, Sani Sulaiman. Ugwoke read the document at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.

The Federal Government refused to make further payments after the initial payment of N30bn out of a total of N92bn earned allowances, he said.

He stressed that the Federal Government had only released N30bn out of the N92bn negotiated earned allowances meant to cover July 2009 to July 2012.

Efforts made by the unions to call the attention of the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Universities Commission, and the vice chancellors of federal universities had not yielded any positive response, he lamented.

While the unionists assured Nigerians of their readiness to sustain industrial peace in the universities, they called on government agencies to avoid acts inimical to the interest of the unions and their members.

Ugwoke also called on the Federal Government to renegotiate the agreement with the unions which according to him was long overdue.

He said, “Our members have been agitated over the non-payment of the negotiated and agreed earned allowances in particular when the first tranche was paid but not continued without reason. The Implementation Monitoring Committee set up by the Federal Government has been frustrated by government officials.

“N30bn was released as part of the earned allowance and about N62bn has yet to be released. Everything is about N92bn and you know, the N92bn we are talking about is for July 2009 to June 2012.