By; Damian Millicent

Agbani – The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has called on the management of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) to as a matter of urgency, address the lingering issue of years of unpaid staff earned academic allowance.

The Acting Chairperson of ASUU, ESUT, Dr Andrew Apeh made the call in an exclusives interview with ESUT Monitor in his office during the week.

Dr. Apeh highlighted the earned academic allowance (EAA) as one of the major challenges facing lecturers in ESUT. He explained that between 2008 and 2014, EAA was calculated to be about ₦4.4 billion adding that from 2014 till date, nothing has been done to address or implement the payment.

He described ESUT Lecturers as being “very dedicated to their work, yet many of their services are rendered like Father Christmas services, free and without proper compensation or remuneration.

“Earned Academic Allowance is meant to be extra payment given to lecturers who take on extra workload beyond the normal requirement. For example, a lecturer may be assigned to teach a class of 50 students. However, when the number exceeds that limit, it becomes additional academic workload, and the lecturer is supposed to be paid extra for it. We have lecturers who also take up Postgraduate students and they deserve to be paid for the extra services they are providing,” he said

“Despite this, ESUT has not taken any step regarding payment of EAA — neither discussing it nor making efforts to mainstream the payment. Meanwhile, some states such as Nasarawa, Benue, and Gombe are already paying their lecturers, and many others are working toward achieving it.” He added

Dr. Apeh stressed that the payment of EAA should be taken seriously by the ESUT management as it would help motivate lecturers and further boost their morale, especially since ESUT lecturers are already doing their very best to ensure quality academic delivery.

Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) is a payment for extra work done by Nigerian university staff (lecturers, technologists, non-academics) beyond their basic salaries, covering things like supervision, research, and administrative duties, formalized in agreements between unions (like ASUU) and the government, but its distribution often causes major disputes due to insufficient funds and lopsided sharing formulas. It’s part of long-standing demands for better welfare and university funding, often released in tranches that lead to union disagreements over allocation.