The Biya regime has in what observers say are signs of panic, begun paying research allowances owed university lecturers. The payment which started yesterday comes after the varsity lecturers syndicate, SYNES announced last week that they would down tools beginning Jun 2, 2022 if their plights were not addressed.
Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education, Prof Jacques Fames Ndongo issued a release in this regard detailing how the payment will go on.
Dr Gong, lecturer at the University of Ngaoundere, said, “it is my first time to collect this research allowance which is issued by the President of the Republic so as to boost and aid research within universities. So I am very happy. I call on all my colleagues that are still dragging, probably doubting, that this is it, I have received the amount.”
According to Prof Wilfred Gabsa, Secretary General at the Ministry of Higher Education, the payments are to be done in four quarters in the months of March, June, September and December.
Gabsa said: “We are saying that, this is the first payment these teachers are receiving for those recruited for the second phase and the special recruitment instructed by the Head of state .
Among the documents that they have submitted, we have the effective presence which corresponds to the period concerned, knowing that next session they are going to be paid through their various banks”.
The displacement of university lecturers from their various regions to receive their payments in Yaoundé however, left many wandering. It is however believed by many that this prompt action by the government is in a bid to avoid another possible scenario of strike, this time by university lecturers.
