There is tension at the University of Benin, Uniben, Benin City, Edo State, as members of the academic staff of the university were paid half salary for August.
However, non-academic staff of the University were paid their full salaries for the past month.
It was gathered that the payment of half salary to the academic staff for August was made without payment of other allowances.
The development came as a surprise, as the university’s management failed to give any prior notice to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) before effecting the half pay.
Lecturers who took loans from the university are said to have been hard hit by the development, as they virtually had nothing to take home for the month.
The August half salary payment, which came ahead of the resumption of schools later this month, is said to have placed many academic staff in a very tight corner regarding the provision of school fees and other needs for their children and wards.
It was learnt that, apart from the five months’ arrears released by the Federal Government as part of the
implementation of the ASUU-FG agreement, the government had quietly shifted the implementation of the agreement to the universities without providing the necessary funding.
Reacting to the August half-salary payment in what it termed an “Important Notice”, the leadership of ASUU, UNIBEN Branch, said it “has met with the University Administration over the payment of August salary, and we have been assured by University Administration that more alerts will come soon; that there should be no cause for alarm. We all should, therefore, remain calm.”
The statement was signed by the Secretary of the union, Dr. L. O. Aimiyekagbon.
But the Chairman of the union, Dr. Enaruna Edosa, who said the August half pay came as a surprise, disclosed that three days later, the management of the university paid professorial allowances to deserving members of the academic staff.
He added, “I believe the Vice-Chancellor that the outstanding half salary will be paid.”
It was gathered that the management of the university paid the academic staff half salary for August from the university’s internally- generated revenue, following the Federal Government’s delay in the release of subvention to the university.
