Governor Seriake Dickson

Bayelsa State governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, has approved the payment of January 2016 salaries to all the staff of the State owned Niger Delta University (NDU) in Wilberforce Island, including members of the Academic staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and graduate assistants.

A statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson on Thursday night in Yenagoa, said approval was part of the decisions reached between the state government and the Leadership of ASUU, NDU branch at a meeting in Government House.

The decision to pay the January 2016 salaries of NDU staff, is intended to bring ASUU and other NDU staff at par with other civil servants in the State, who have since received their salaries for January.

According to the State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Hon. Jonathan Obuebite,  Dickson, sympathised with ASUU and other staff of NDU but reassured them of the government’s commitment to the welfare of civil servants, including staff of NDU and especially ASUU, in view of the utmost importance the administration attached to education.

He also stressed that pending the outcome of a congress meeting of ASUU to determine suggest an acceptable mode of payment of their salaries, Governor Dickson has also approved the payment of 50 percent of salaries to all staff of the university.

Obuebite said that the Bayelsa State Governor also used the opportunity to explain the general economic downturn in the Country, which has adversely affected the revenues of the State, coupled with the recent upsurge in militancy, which has equally drastically reduced the State’s quota of oil produced.

The governor reassured all civil servants, including ASUU of the government’s preparedness to pay the backlog of salaries owed them, as soon as the economy improves.

t will be recalled that, ASUU, NDU branch has been on strike due to the Government’s inability to meet its salary obligation to them, occasioned by the prevailing economic situation, which is not peculiar to Bayelsa alone.