Unpaid Salaries: 84 Lecturers Died In Three Months, Says ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says 84 of its members died between May and August 2024 due to economic hardship and unpaid salaries.

ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, made this startling revelation on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

“In the past three months, from May to August (2024), Nigerian universities lost 84 academics to death. In three months, because of what our people are going through.

“Despite this crisis, you are holding somebody’s three-and-half or more salaries on the no-work, no-pay, you are owing this money. People are trying to survive, you introduced fuel increase, you introduced electricity increase, and everything is gone now.

Osodeke advocated increased funding for university education in Nigeria, saying that to get the sector functioning optimally, lecturers must be motivated.

He said that he earns N420,000 per month despite being a professor for 15 years. According to him, Nigerian lecturers can’t compete globally if not well-paid.

On September 25, 2024, ASUU issued the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum to resolve several lingering issues including the conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement as well as the release of withheld salaries due to the 2022 industrial action.

In 2022, academic and non-academic unions in Nigeria embarked on an eight-month strike to press home some of their demands including a better welfare package. The administration of then President Muhammadu Buhari subsequently invoked a ‘no work, no pay policy’ against the unions but President Bola Tinubu, in October 2023, approved the release of four of the about eight months withheld salaries.

ASUU members were paid four months of the withheld salaries while members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) were not paid at all. The two non-academic unions were on strike earlier in March while Education Minister Tahir Mamman said the government would consider half-pay for them.

Osodeke said ASUU members must be fully paid for the entire period of the industrial action in 2022. He submitted that the Tinubu administration has not done lecturers any favours by clearing four of their about eight months’ withheld salaries.