Nigeria Government Approves N120B Pay Rise For Dons, Doctors, Others

ABUJA March 27, (THEWILL) - Agitations for pay rise by University lecturers and medical doctors in Nigeria have paid off as the Federal Government has approved a total of N125 billion to settle their demands and those of other workers in the federal service.

The amount is part of the N440 billion provided for in the Nigeria 2010 budget as passed by the National Assembly on Thursday to finance wage reforms in the federal service circle which included allocations for promotions in government agencies and departments.

Nigerian Federal Government under Acting President Goodluck Jonathan said this is part of the moves by government to ensure better working conditions for federal workers in the country.

This, government said is also to forestall the reoccurrence of series of strikes which paralyzed activities in the health and education sectors last year.

University lecturers under the umbrella of the Academic Staff of Union of Universities (ASUU) as well as non-academic staffers in the universities shut down federal campuses for over three months last year to drive home their demands for wage increase.

They only went back to work after they reached agreements with the authorities to among things include the funds in the 2010 budget.

In the same vein medical health workers had continued to embark on strikes over their demand for wage increase in the sector.

It is thus on this back drop that Government approved a total of N125 billion to take care of wage increase agitations in these critical sectors.

Out of the N120 billion university lecturers and the non-academic workers are to receive a total of N80 billion to take care of their demand for increase in wages.

An additional N5 billion was approved to settle wage increase demands by lecturers in Colleges of Education and other tertiary Institutions.

In the same vein a total of N15 billion have been approved to take care of wage increase by medical doctors and other professionals in government hospitals and health centers in the country.

Government also approved N25 billion to settle arrears of promotions in federal ministries and departments.

There has been widespread agitation in the federal service for increase in pay packages and better working conditions for workers across board.

Meanwhile, a total of N42 billion has been passed for the settlement of arrears of monetization benefit owed workers in extra ministerial parastatals and departments.

Workers at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja expressed happiness over the budgetary allocations and urged Government to ensure full implementation of the provisions to forestall further crisis in the sectors.

Some workers observed that government sometimes do not effect actual releases of funds already provided for in the budget and urged Acting President Goodluck Jonathan to see to it that the funds are released promptly for the benefit of the workers.