Senator Shehu Sani has faulted the Federal Government’s decision to pay lecturers half of their salaries following the eight-month strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASU
According to Senator Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the National Assembly from 2015 to 2019, no lawmaker is paid half salary for staying away from “office” during session
He particularly made reference to the efforts of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila’s attempt to explain government’s decision to pay the lecturers half salar
Gbajabiami
The Speaker had been mediating in the face-off between the union and Federal Governmen
In a statement explaining the situation, the Speaker said: “The Executive position that it is not obligated to pay salaries to lecturers for the time spent on strike is premised on the law and the government’s legitimate interest in preventing moral hazard and discouraging disruptive industrial action
“Nonetheless, interventions have been made to explore the possibility of partial payments to the lecturer
“We look forward to a favourable consideration by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, who has manifested his desire to what is prudent and necessary to resolve all outstanding issues
Lawmakers’ full allowanc
However, taking to his verified Twitter handle, Senator Sani said: “A system where no legislator is paid half salary for absence from the chamber during session, even for no valid reason, the Speaker is justifying half salary for the university lecturers
Few minutes after, he tweeted again that a lecturer reached him, pointing out that he was paid N40,000 which is not even half of his salar
The tweet: “After my last tweet, a university lecturer called me to tell me that he was paid 40k (N40,000) and not ‘half salary
“No clerk or gardener in the Presidential Villa or National Assembly is being paid such a paltry sum
Casual lecture
Meanwhile, ASUU has described the half-salary payments to its members as an aberration that makes the lecturers casual worker
Rising from its NEC meeting, ASUU regretted that the response of government towards its demonstration of trust was the so-called ‘pro-rata’ payment for eighteen days as the October salary of academics, thereby portraying them as daily paid worker
However, it decided not to embark on another strike action but resolved to wait for the Speaker, Gbajabiamila’s intervention in the face-of
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Credit: Vanguard
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