Varsity Funding: ASUU Seeks Government Release, Disbursement of Earned Academic Allowance
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Lagos zone, yesterday, called on the federal government to ensure the immediate release and disbursement of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) appropriated into the 2023 budget, as well as the development of a more enduring funding framework.
This is just as the Bauchi State chapter of ASUU has lamented the current harrowing economic condition of Nigerian citizens, calling on the federal government to accelerate the process of arriving at a minimum living wage as demanded by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
The Coordinator of the union, Comrade Adelaja Odukoya who made this call while briefing journalists, at the University of Lagos, Akoka, recalled that N120 billion was proposed to be used for the revitalisation of universities based on the Needs Assessment report out of N170 billion allocated by the federal government in the 2023 budget following the union's 2022 strike action, while the remaining amount would be used for the payment of the EAA.
He stated that the sums are no longer adequate for revitiisation purposes, owing to increasing deterioration of current facilities and the astronomical rise of the exchange rate.
He expressed concern about the failure of the federal government to address the payment of of the backlog of the EAA, a portion of which was included in the 2023 national budget for federal universities saying, "the mainstreaming of EAA into academics' wages was reiterated in the December 2020 Memorandum of Action (MoA) between federal government of Nigeria and ASUU, to the effect that the next tranche of allowances would be paid in 2021.
"The planned payment was reneged on, while the mainstreaming of EAA in federal and state universities has stalled since 2022."
Odukoya explained that government at all levels should not wait for another round of strikes before paying these entitlements which values have now been eroded, and which were included in the budget that the union was given access to by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives and now Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.