Ex-VC commends FG over timely salary payment, urges clearance of outstanding arrears
pannigeriannews
2 min read
By Isaiah Adewole
Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, has commended the Federal Government for prioritising the timely payment of salaries to staff of federal universities.
Olayinka, in a statement, said he received an alert from First Bank in the early hours of Thursday confirming payment of his August salary.
He described the development as commendable, expressing hope that the delays previously experienced in the payment of university workers’ salaries had come to an end.
“The Federal Government is commended for not delaying the payment of our entitlement. Hopefully, the protracted delay witnessed in such matters up until the recent past has now been permanently laid to rest,” Olayinka said.
However, the former university administrator urged the Federal Government to take further steps to settle all outstanding entitlements owed to university staff.
According to him, some university employees are still being owed salaries for months in 2022, including staff who were on approved leave from their institutions during the affected period.
He also raised concerns over unpaid promotion arrears, noting that some of the outstanding payments date back more than a decade.
“Many members of staff are still being owed promotion arrears, some of them dating as far back as 2011,” he said.
Olayinka said settling the arrears would significantly improve the morale of university workers and encourage them to remain committed to their responsibilities.
“Payment of such entitlement to all the affected staff will go a very long way in motivating staff to continue to give their best to the system,” he stated.
The former Vice-Chancellor also called attention to the welfare of academic staff in state-owned universities, saying reports of continued non-payment of the recently approved Consolidated Academic Salary Structure (CONASS) adjustments and other agreed benefits in some states could trigger industrial unrest.
He described the situation as a “gentle invitation to chaos and strikes” if the affected state governments fail to act promptly.
“The labourer, not to talk of the knowledge workers in the Nigerian University System, deserves his wages,” Olayinka said.
He urged state governments to prioritise the payment of outstanding entitlements to university workers, particularly in view of increased revenues accruing to states following the removal of the petrol subsidy in May 2023.
“They deserve priority attention given improvement in the revenues accruing to States following removal of fuel subsidy since 29 May 2023,” he concluded.
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