The Minister of State for Education, Tanko Sununu, has written the Ministry of Finance over the withheld salaries of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU); and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of Nigerian Universitie and Allied Institutions.
In a letter dated 11 July 2024, addressed to the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, the education minister noted that President Bola Tinubu had on 10 July approved the payment of four months out of the eigth months’ withheld salaries of the university workers.
Official documents sighted by The PUNCH on Thursday revealed that the President gave the approval at the Federal Executive Council meeting of 10 July 2024.
Members of the two non-academic unions have yet to get the payment.
The Federal Government withheld the salaries of the university workers after they embarked on an eight-month-long strike in 2022.
Implementing the principle of ‘no work, no pay’, the Federal Government, under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, withheld the workers’ salaries.
Also affected were university lecturers or academic staff, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
Following sustained agitations, President Bola Tinubu ordered the release of four months out of the eight months withheld salaries to ASUU members, leaving out NASU and SSANU.
Since then, NASU and SSANU have also been mounting pressure on the Federal Government to extend the same gesture to them.
Documents sighted by a reporter on Thursday indicated that the President had also approved the payment of four months’ salary for NASU and SSANU.
Six weeks after the approval, the Ministry of Finance, despite acknowledging a receipt of letters written by the Ministry of State for Education, has yet to release the funds.
The education minister, Sununu, on 11 July 2024, wrote a letter to the finance minister, Edun, which was titled: “Request for the implementation of presidential waiver for payment of withheld salaries to the non-academic staff of Nigerian universities”.
Sununu wrote: “Kindly recall Mr President’s directive at the Federal Executive Council meeting of 10 July 2024 on the waiver for the payment of withheld salaries of university unions during the period they embarked on strike.
“It is pertinent to state that the Academic Staff Union of Universities has received payments of their four months’ withheld salaries. However, the following non-academic staff unions have the presidential waiver for 50% of their withheld salaries for the period they embarked on strike for April to August 2022”.
Several sources within the Ministry of Education and the unions noted that upon knowledge of the information, efforts had been made to meet with the Minister of Finance to ensure the release of the funds.
“The media is our hope at this point. The Ministry of Education doesn’t release funds, only the Ministry of Finance can do that. The Ministry of Education has raised memos and they can’t do more than that”, one of the sources said.
Efforts to reach the spokesperson for the finance ministry, Muhammed Manga, proved abortive as of the time of filing this report.
