The management of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (NAU), has reacted to the indefinite strike by the NAU chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
NAU, a federal university in Anambra State, is popularly known as UNIZIK.
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Industrial action and alleged non-payment of salaries
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that the ASUU-UNIZIK declared an indefinite strike at the university on Monday.
The lecturers had stressed that the “sole reason” for their industrial action at the university was the “non-payment of the complete salary of August 2026.”
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“The Congress resolution directs as follows: that all members should immediately withdraw all academic and administrative services. The withdrawal of services shall subsist until the complete payment of the August 2026 salary to all members,” the lecturers had declared.
The union further alleged that the latest incident was at least the third time lecturers at the university had received half of their salaries.
UNIZIK reacts
When contacted on Tuesday, the university spokesperson, Aloysius Attah, told PREMIUM TIMES that the lecturers’ allegation of receiving half salaries was false.
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“No one got half salary. Their salaries are intact. It is only their Earned Academic Allowance,” Mr Attah said.
The spokesperson explained that the university could not pay the full earned allowance to the lecturers because of funding constraints.
Mr Attah recalled that the federal government had reached an agreement with the ASUU’s national body on the payment of the earned allowance. Still, he later asked universities to pay lecturers the allowances from their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) with a promise to reimburse them later.
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“The university is pushing hard to meet up (with payment of the allowance),” he said, adding that the institution spends a minimum of N500 million monthly to pay the allowance.
The spokesperson pointed out that the university recorded a shortfall in its IGR, resulting in the non-payment of the full allowance to lecturers.
Mr Attah expressed surprise that the lecturers embarked on the industrial action despite having met with the university’s vice-chancellor, who appealed to them for more time to source funds for their allowances, given the shortfall in IGR.
“The management is trying hard to sustain the payment of the earned allowance to the lecturers every month,” he said.
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