Victoria Mbangwa
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other university workers are withdrawing from their duties as unpaid salaries trigger nationwide disruption.
The National President of ASUU, Prof. Chris Piwuna, confirmed in Abuja on Friday that the union has officially activated a “No Pay, No Work” policy in response to the Federal Government’s failure to promptly pay lecturers’ salaries since the removal of university workers from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
“Since the departure from IPPIS, the salaries of lecturers have consistently been delayed,” Piwuna told reporters. “We don’t get paid the way other workers get paid. It is either we are paid 10 days into a new month. With the economic challenges in the country, it has not been easy for our members.”
Piwuna said ASUU branches across the country have begun implementing the new stance, effectively grounding lectures in public universities until the government responds. “We want to teach but we can’t teach without our salaries. We have decided to invoke the no-pay-no-work policy. he added.
This development adds a fresh layer of uncertainty for students who were hoping for stability after past disruptions due to industrial actions. Classrooms in many federal universities have already been vacated as the standoff deepens.
The non-academic staff are also feeling the pinch. Mohammed Ibrahim, who leads the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), described the situation as disheartening.
“University workers are simply treated like second-class citizens. Remember, we have written to the Accountant General of the Federation and copied the ministers of education and labour. The labour ministry wrote to us to say that they have reached out to the minister of education, but you can see that nothing has changed this month either,” Ibrahim said.
Despite the government’s earlier announcement of removing universities from IPPIS a system ASUU has long criticized workers say the transition has only worsened salary administration instead of solving it.
