A storm of frustration is brewing at Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, where nearly 200 lecturers hired in 2023 have gone a full year without pay — despite actively teaching, grading, and graduating students.
The aggrieved lecturers, speaking through their spokesperson, Chukwemeka Thompson, expressed deep disappointment over the silence from both the university management and the Abia State Government, calling on Governor Alex Otti to urgently intervene and clear their 12-month salary arrears.
“We were employed in 2023 as staff of Abia State University. We have been receiving salaries, but around June last year, our salary stopped coming,” Thompson said in an interview with *South East Punch* on Saturday. “So, we went to the Bursary unit to ask what actually happened and they told us that we should go to the Accountant General office.”
Thompson recounted a frustrating cycle of passing the buck, with university authorities washing their hands off the matter, and the Accountant General’s office reportedly acting on orders from above. “They told us that the government gave instruction that they should stop the salary. So, we now went back to the management to find out what actually is going on… they said yes, that the government is now in charge of the institution and the autonomy of the institution,” he explained.
The lecturers lamented that after several fruitless assurances, including an alleged December 2024 payment promise, they remain unpaid without any official disengagement. “We have not been issued any disengagement letter. We have not officially seen anything. But we have our employment letters duly signed and given to us individually. We keep pleading for them to please try and reach out to the governor that we are really suffering,” Thompson added.
Joining the appeal, other affected lecturers including Dr. Nwosu Nkemakolam Bright and Okpechi Chinemerem, pleaded with Governor Otti to show compassion, recalling how the administration settled outstanding salaries of other state institutions. “We are pleading with Governor Alex Otti to pay us our arrears as he did to other ministries, including Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic, Aba workers. He can still consider us and have mercy,” they said.
Supporting their cause, the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), ABSU chapter, Chidi Mba, confirmed knowledge of their predicament, affirming that these lecturers deserve full integration and payment. “Since the State Government approved new staff intake and most of them are qualified and have been teaching, grading and graduating students, they should be considered because they are suffering,” Mba declared.
As the salary drought stretches beyond a year, the fate of the affected lecturers remains uncertain, highlighting the lingering crisis of wage justice within Abia’s public institutions.
