The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has protested over the exclusion of its members from the 40 percent pay rise by the federal government.

The government had earlier revealed that only the 144,766 federal civil servants under the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure will benefit from the new 40 per cent peculiar allowance introduced.

This implies that other workers under the employment of the Federal Government but operating under different salary structures will not benefit.

These categories of workers include university lecturers, medical doctors, nurses, non-academic workers in tertiary institutions, the police and members of the armed forces, among others.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had disclosed that the Federal Government approved a pay raise for civil servants in the country, which has been included in the 2023 budget and would take effect from January 1, 2023.

Ngige described the pay raise as a peculiar allowance for civil servants in view of the current economic reality and it was meant to help government workers to cushion the effects of rising inflation, rising cost of living, and hikes in transportation fare, housing and electricity tariffs.

The National Salaries Income and Wages Commission headed by Ekpo Nta noted in a memo that “This approval takes effect from 1st of January, 2023 and the estimated sum of seventy nine billion, three hundred and seventy-three million, three hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and fifty-nine Naira (N79,373,340,959.00) per annum required to implement it for the 144,766 staff on CONPSS will be funded from the treasury,” Ekpo said.

Reacting,  The National President of the union, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, accused the government of trying to create problems in the system, adding that ASUU would study the situation on the ground and make its stand known soon.

“We just saw the news this evening that arrears are being paid to workers. We are surprised. However, we will study the situation.

“The government is simply trying to create a problem in the system. We are watching and we are studying the situation of things on the ground,” he said .