NATIONAL: Some lecturers won’t receive a kobo from N40b allowance – ASUU President

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities has said the N40bn earned allowance is not meant for every lecturer in universities across the country.

The national president of ASUU, Prof. ‘Biodun Ogunyemi revealed this following the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige’s disclosure that the N40bn earned allowance had been paid to the universities’ account

Ngige added that out of the N40bn, ASUU has N30bn as earned academic allowance while the non-teaching staff has N10bn as earned allowance.

Ogunyemi made the revealation during a brief interview with Punch newspaper on Monday.

He said, “He said, “N30bn was not paid to ASUU, the money was paid to the universities’ account. The money will be disbursed to ASUU members who have such a claim. There are ASUU members that would not claim a kobo out of this money.

“If you don’t teach postgraduate students, you won’t get postgraduate allowance; if you don’t supervise the postgraduate project, you won’t be paid for it; if you don’t have excess workload, you won’t be paid for that as well. So, when people hear 30bn has been paid to ASUU members, they think everybody has gotten a windfall and that is not the correct picture.”

Ogunyemi also said some Vice-Chancellors and bursars of some universities are hindering the smooth disbursement of the union’s share of the N40bn earned allowance.

He said, “There are some hitches at the Central Bank too. So, it is when we confirm that other universities have been paid that we can attest to, and we suspect that some Vice-Chancellors and bursars are trying to constitute problems.

“In principle, they have released the money but in vertical terms, not all universities have received theirs. Some VCs are not cooperating with our members on the information they should provide. We expect them to carry our members along and disburse the money based on the agreed formula but because some VCs always have issues with the union either because the union is too critical of them or they have something to hide, they are not cooperating with our union. We are monitoring those universities and at the appropriate time we will come up with a decision about them.”

Ogunyemi identified the University of Lokoja as one of the universities that had refused to offer information that would assist speedy disbursement of the fund to ASUU members in the school.

“For instance, the Federal University, Lokoja, is not forthcoming with information. What is expected is that they had worked out what the EAA arrears for lecturers are and what proportion that money can pay. We need to work with the University administration to present what proportion they can payout of the arrears because the money cannot pay all that they owe.”