Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
The federal government has said that the ongoing warning industrial action embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is uncalled for saying that, their demands have been graciously meant.
The Truth Live News Media reports that the federal government, through the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this while speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s “The Morning Brief”.
Mr. Alausa appealed with the ASUU members to return to work.
According to Alausa, ASUU is the body he has had the most meetings with since he assumed his current position.
“We have addressed every single request by ASUU; there is no need for this strike, and we are pleading with them to go back to school.
“We need to keep our children in school. If there is any group of people that I have met with the most since I assumed this position, it is ASUU.
“The arrears of their earned academic allowance, we’ve paid N50 billion. The President swiftly approved that payment months ago. Why they had earned academic arrears was that they didn’t want the arrears to be mainstreamed as part of their salary, which was the best way, but they now came back and we talked to them.
“The earned academic arrears have now been mainstreamed as their salaries. There will never be arrears again.
“We’ve also addressed issues about the postgraduate supervision allowances, which are to be paid by the institutions, and I’ve been told that these are being paid.
“There are issues about the needs assessment money, which was not released. If you remember, this assessment was negotiated by them almost 20 years ago, but this government met those liabilities.
“The President approved N150 billion of his assessment money in this 2026 budget; N50 billion of that has been released. The President promised us he would release this in tranches of N50 billion over three payments; the first one has been released, it is sitting in the needs assessment account now.
“For us not to dispose of money, it’s ASUU that is holding those disbursements. The promotion arrears, we told them this will be paid with the 2026 budget, which will be appropriated as part of the 2026 appropriation budget, but what was causing the arrears, we’ve resolved that,” Alausa said.