BREAKING: ASUU: Why FG Paid Varsity Lecturers Half Salary

“Those obviously being referred to by the UDUS ASUU chairperson were members of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association who abstained from the eight-month strike of ASUU because they abhorred the incessant strikes by the union and its grave effects on medical education in Nigeria and production of more medical doctors.

“Accusing the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, of biased payment of salaries to selected professional members of ASUU, is a barefaced distortion of facts. Mustapha said he received information that a segment of the staff in the College of Health Sciences has been paid seven months of their withheld salaries from March to September, due to a letter written to the Minister of Finance, instructing the exemption of the under-listed staff on the application of ‘No Work, No Pay’ rule.

“To set the records straight, the medical lecturers who are being referred to by the Chairperson of the ASUU UDUS branch, abstained from the eight-month strike of ASUU. This has been corroborated in a press statement by the Chairman, MDCAN UdUS, Dr B. Jubrin and Secretary, Dr I. G Ango, on Friday, November 4, 2022,” the ministry said.

Quoting from Dr Jubrin’s press statement, “Realising the emergency situation in the sub-region worsened by emerging public health threats, the medical and dental lecturers in UDUS decided to continue the academic activities during the ASUU strike to save our healthcare from total collapse. To this end, the UDUS medical lecturers agreed to conduct lectures and examinations during the period of the strike.

“In line with the provisions of the Labour Act, we wrote and sought the intervention of the Minister of Labour and Employment, to ensure payment of our salaries. The Minister, having carefully reviewed our submission and that of the university management, obliged. This is not an act of favouritism as alleged by ASUU, UDUS branch leadership in their press statement.

“ASUU, UDUS branch, as an association, is expected to protect the interest of all her members and appreciate the differences or peculiarities of medical education. The ASUU can legitimately fight for its lawful rights without tramping on the rights of others who are also university staff. We hope that this response will put issues in their proper perspective.”