The Federal Government on Saturday explained why it failed to pay full salaries to lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

In a statement, by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the government noted that members of ASUU were paid their October salary pro-rata.

According to the ministry, pro-rata was done because they cannot be paid for work not done.

The statement further clarified that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, never directed the Accountant General of the Federation to pay the university lecturers half their salary.

The statement reads in part, “Following the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, asking ASUU to go back to work, the leadership of the union wrote to the Minister, informing him that they have suspended the strike. The Federal Ministry of Education wrote to him in a similar vein and our labour inspectors in various states also confirmed that they have resumed work.

“So, the minister wrote to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, directing that their salaries should be restored. They were paid in pro-rata to the number of days that they worked in October, counting from the day that they suspended their industrial action. Pro-rata was done because you cannot pay them for work not done. Everybody’s hands are tied. ”

The ministry equally faulted a statement by the Chairperson of ASUU, Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto branch, Muhammad Al-Mustapha, accusing Ngige of bias in the payment of salaries to selected professional members of the union.

“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 Minister of Labour and Employment, 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.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has commenced plans to pay the Congress of University Academics their withheld salaries and rectify the half salaries paid to all lecturers for the month of October 2022, Sunday PUNCH has reliably gathered.

Sources familiar with the matter made it known to our correspondent on Saturday.

Sunday PUNCH reports that the lecturers under CONUA just like ASUU had their salaries withheld following the invocation of the ‘No-work-No-pay policy’ by the Federal Government at the height of the ASUU strike.

Though the coordinator of CONUA, Dr Niyi Sunmonu noted that members of CONUA were not on strike, the lecturers still had their salaries withheld.

CONUA, a breakaway faction of the Academic Staff of Universities was registered in October, 2022 by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.