ASUU flags eligibility ambiguity in FG’s CATA payment, demands clarity

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on the federal government to clarify what it means by ‘eligible’ academic staff in the circular directing universities to pay five months of accumulated Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA).

The leadership of the lecturers’ union expressed concerns that the vague language could reignite industrial tensions across public universities.

Chris Piwuna, ASUU president, raised the concern in an interview with journalists on Sunday, after Tunji Alausa, the minister of education, issued a circular directing vice-chancellors of federal universities to immediately clear outstanding CATA arrears owed to lecturers from January 2026.

“We signed the agreement on behalf of all our dues-paying members. When you introduce such terms without clearly stating what you mean, those implementing it give different interpretations, causing confusion and overheating our campuses,” Piwuna said.

Besides, Piwuna frowned at the federal government’s framing of the payment, insisting that CATA is distinct from two other allowances covered under the January 14, 2026, agreement, the professorial allowance and the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA).

“It is a misinterpretation to refer to all the allowances as CATA. CATA is different from professorial allowance, and then you have EAA,” he noted.

CATA is a standing allowance covering expenses such as journal publications, conference participation, internet access, learned society memberships, and books.

It was revised under the 2025 FGN-ASUU agreement and forms part of a 40 per cent upward review of lecturers’ emoluments. EAA, by contrast, is a duty-based allowance paid only when academic staff carry out specific tasks beyond regular teaching, including postgraduate supervision, external moderation, and industrial training oversight.

The ASUU president emphasised that the EAA arrears had stretched to 18 months as of May, describing the government’s implementation of the renegotiated agreement as ‘haphazard.’

Piwuna’s disposition mirrors the growing restiveness within ASUU’s campus chapters, several of which have threatened industrial action if outstanding obligations are not met.