The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has opposed the federal government’s decision to pay withholding salary to only members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), excluding NAAT and two other university-based unions.
In a statement signed by its president, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma, and general secretary, Comrade Abubakar Yusuf, the union stated that the government’s move was unfair, unjust, and a formula for an industrial crisis in universities.
The union stated that it was informed that the government directed the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) to pay the withheld salaries to only ASUU members, contradicting the minister of education’s statement at a high-level stakeholders meeting on January 11, 2024.
According to the union, the minister stated that the government had finalized all arrangements for paying withheld salaries to all members of university-based unions in federal universities, as well as implementing the new salary structure of 25% and 35% salary increases for all workers in tertiary institutions.
NAAT said it was impossible to reconcile the minister’s comments with the government’s decision to pay only ASUU members the withheld salary, which it claimed was creating a charged climate and a formula for complete disruption of academic activities on campuses.
The workers also drew the minister’s attention to the current economic hardship being experienced by Nigerians, including its members, as a result of the removal of petroleum subsidies, which they claimed had made life unbearable due to high living costs and the erosion of the currency’s purchasing power.
The union stated that the government’s continual refusal to honour and implement freely agreed agreements reached through collective bargaining prompted the university sector unions to go on strike in the first place.
Nwokoma further stated that the laboratory, workshop, and studio work lost during the strike had been filled by academic technologists because students had graduated and others had completed the mandated National Youth Service programme.
The union therefore strongly appealed to the minister to look at the plight of its members and promptly pay the over five-month withheld salaries, implement the 25% and 35% approved salary increases with arrears, and release the arrears of earned allowances of NAAT members as contained in the MoU signed between NAAT and the government.