Bayelsa: ASUU Rejects Allowance Proposal, Insists on Honouring CBA

The Niger Delta University (NDU) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the Bayelsa State Government’s recent approval of a 40% allowance package for public servants, claiming that the measure does not address agreements already made with university lecturers.

The union said that by disguising its demands as a component of the recently authorized allowances, the state administration was deceiving the people. It further stated that academics were merely requesting that the 2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) be put into effect.

According to a statement signed by ASUU branch chairman Comrade Oyinkepreye Lucky Bebeteidoh and branch secretary Comrade Victory C. Owede on Tuesday, the union was calling for the implementation of the Consolidated Academic and Allied Staff Allowance (CATA) agreement signed on December 23, 2025, to take effect in January 2026.

Contrary to reports that ASUU was requesting more than N2.99 billion per month, the ASUU chairman stated that the total computed CATA for academic staff in the state’s three universities is N336.9 million.

Bebeteidoh questioned why the government permitted “peculiar allowances” for the other unions but refused to carry out an agreement it willingly signed with ASUU, criticizing the government for fabricating the numbers.

Read Also: Senate Moves to Compel Facebook, TikTok, Others to Open Nigerian Offices

“The public is being misled and misinformed by ASUU’s demand of N2.144 billion, giving the impression that ASUU is requesting more than N2.99 billion each month as CATA. The CATA was signed in December 2025, with implementation starting in January 2026.

“ASUU is requesting that the CATA be implemented in accordance with the terms of the agreement. Why is the government making odd concessions to unions in the absence of such an agreement? “Why combine the strange allowances with our CATA demand?” he questioned.

The government’s justification that it was waiting for other states to implement the allowance before taking any action was also criticized by the ASUU head.

He said that such agreements had been made by other states that received significantly less federal funding than Bayelsa.

In January 2026, ASUU sent a letter to the government outlining the implementation period. Why did it take seven months to formally declare one’s incapacity to pay?