The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, University of Benin (UNIBEN) Branch, has frowned at an attempt by the management of the university to polarise it by requesting its members desirous of receiving part-payment of their salaries to approach the Salaries and Wages Division of the Bursary Department latest Friday October 2 to do so.
Reacting to a memo requesting its members willing to receive their September 2026 salary while awaiting the release of the allowance component by the Federal Government, the University’s ASUU Chairman and Secretary, Dr. Enaruna Edosa and Lucky Aimiyekagbon, respectively, warned members against accepting the University’s offer as they would have inadvertently granted the University perpetual leave to tamper with their emoluments at will.
In a statement addressed to ASUU members titled: “Re: payment of September salary”, the leadership described the University’s memo as “provocative, divisive and mischievous” and “a flagrant affront on the resolution of ASUU-UNIBEN at its meeting of 29th September, 2026”.
Declaring that the memo was calculated at intimidating and coercing its members to formally accept the balkanisation and fractionalisation of their duly earned emoluments, the Union insisted that “Approaching the Bursary Department to indicate a willingness to accept the payment of your emoluments in bits and pieces amounts to personally signing onto enslavement and poverty”.
It therefore warned members against accepting the University’s offer, saying if they did, they would have inadvertently granted the University perpetual leave to tamper with their emoluments at will.
According to the leadership, “The statement that salary is personal to each staff is wrongly contextualised, and therefore, false and misleading, as the salaries of ASUU members are a product of collective bargaining.
“The action of the University Administration is a gross and blatant violation of the ILO Convention No. 98 (Article 2) that strictly bars employers’ interference in the administration and operation of trade unions. Bypassing the Union to strike individual deals with our members is a calculated attempt to weaken the Union’s collective bargaining power.
“It is an insult to your personal dignity, humanity, and integrity to submit yourself to the humiliation of going to the Bursary to sign to collect a fraction of your emoluments after doing a full month’s work.
“For the reasons clearly articulated above, the leadership of the Branch directs all members of ASUU-UNIBEN to resist falling into the trap of the University of Benin Administration to subject them to perpetual servitude.
“Note, for the avoidance of doubt, that most federal universities including Bayero University Kano, University of Ilorin, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, University of Jos, Federal University, Otuoke, Federal University of Technology, Akure, University of Port Harcourt, University of Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and Federal University, Kebbi have paid September 2026 emoluments in full (i.e inclusive of CONUASS, CATA, PA, and EAA); and we cannot comprehend why UNIBEN will not be in the category of these welfarist universities.
“We shall get our full emoluments duly when we stand together”, the Union assured and urged its members to stay away from the Bursary Department, adding “United we stand, divided we beg!”
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