By 
Tayo AFOLABI
President Muhammadu Buhari has warned against signing agreements that the government will not be able to meet.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, made the disclosure while speaking, during the meeting with vice-chancellors and other stakeholders in the university system.
Adamu further revealed that the Federal Government could only afford a 23.5 percent salary increase for varsity workers and a 35% increment for only professors.
The minister said, ”The Federal Government can only afford a 23.5% salary increase for all categories of the workforce in Federal Universities, except for the professorial cadre, which will enjoy a 35% upward review.
“Henceforth, allowances that pertain to ad-hoc duties of the academic and non-academic staff shall be paid as at when due by the Governing Councils of Universities, to which such services are rendered and to the staff who perform them.”
Adamu also revealed that a sum of N150 billion will be provided as funds for the revitalisation of Federal Universities in the first quarter of 2023.
“That a sum of 150 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget, as funds for the revitalisation of Federal Universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year, and that a sum of 50 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget, for the payment of outstanding arrears of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the First Quarter of the year.”
At the end of the meeting, the pro-chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, Professor Peter Okebukola, noted that the government was ready to go all out to ensure that the university lecturers return back to school.
Recall that lecturers of the Federal Government owned universities had embarked on strike since February 14, 2022, to demand release of revitalisation funds for universities; deployment of the University
Transparency Accountability System (UTAS) for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers; release of earned allowances; the release of the white paper report of the visitation panels to universities and other issues involving the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement.
Comments