The Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may be preparing for another showdown as the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has insisted the government will not pay full salaries to lecturers despite their ongoing nationwide protest. The Minister stated this while briefing correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Adamu, insisted that the protesting lecturers would not be paid for work not done in line with ‘No work no pay’ policy. ASUU had on Monday begun protests across the country to press home their demand for full pay after the Federal Government failed to pay them for the eight-month period the lecturers were on strike.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced that only Computer Based-Test (CBT) Centres with laptops would be accredited to conduct the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). This was disclosed by the Board’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who stated that this was aimed at solving the issue of power failures, which causes disruption during UTME.

The Federal Government has insisted that the Academic Staff Union of the Nigerian University, ASUU were paid based on the number of days they worked during the month of October. Vigil360reported that on Thursday, ASUU cried out that they were only paid half salaries for the month of October as against their condition for calling off the 8th-month industrial action. Reacting to the matter, the federal government dismissed the allegation that a selective payment was made to some of the lecturers, saying, ASUU was being economical with the truth.

There is fresh tension in the Nigerian federal universities after the just-returned lecturers were paid half their salaries as payment for the month of October 2022 by the federal government. Recall the Academic Staff Union of the Nigerian Universities, ASUU called off its eight months Industrial Action on 14th October 2022, making the academicians have only worked for 18 days in the month of October. The drama was unveiled when the lecturers started receiving what was bewildering to their amusement as only half of salary alerts from their usual salary accounts were paid by the federal government.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said the issues in its disputes with the Federal Government were not well addressed, despite the agreement to call off the strike. The National President of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed this is a press statement issued on Friday. He applauded the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. The statement partly read, “The National Executive Council of ASUU held an emergency meeting at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja, on Thursday, October 13, 2022”. The union in its statement further noted that the Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chris Ngige, took the striking lecturers to court.

Embattled Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has scheduled a meeting of its National Executive Council for Thursday to consider the planned call-off of the nine months old strike by lecturers in federal universities across the country. Preparatory to the NEC meeting expected to take place at its headquarters in Abuja, the union had directed zonal branches branches to commence the traditional voting today to take a position over the ongoing strike by the union, which will be transmitted to the NEC for final decision. The development came as reports had emerged across social media platforms earlier on Tuesday, claiming that the union had called off the almost 8-month old strike and subsequently directed members to resume academic activities on October 17.