- The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned the poor remuneration of lecturers, lamenting that professors earn only about ₦525,000 monthly.
- Despite President Tinubu’s earlier release of ₦50 billion for earned allowances, the union insists on improved salaries, better working conditions, enhanced university funding, and autonomy.
- However, ASUU president, Prof. Chris Piwuna, disclosed that the union was not invited, stressing that members are “tired of words and no action.”
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has decried the poor remuneration of its members in Nigeria’s education sector.
The union, which has long pushed for the full implementation of its renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, said the government’s failure to act was one of the key reasons behind Tuesday’s protests across universities nationwide.
ASUU lamented that professors currently earn only about ₦525,000 monthly, a figure it described as grossly inadequate.
Earlier this year, President Bola Tinubu released ₦50 billion to clear earned allowances, but ASUU insists more action is needed on salaries, working conditions, funding, autonomy, and a review of NUC and JAMB laws.
Today, the Ministers of Education and Labour, alongside the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, are meeting to draft a timetable for implementing the renegotiated agreement. Discussions will focus on aligning the Yayale Ahmed report with the 2009 agreement and Nimi Briggs recommendations, while determining how to spread costs across the national budget within a binding framework.
ASUU president, Prof. Chris Piwuna, on Wednesday, expressed cautious optimism about the talks.
He said:
“I truly hope they will come up with something tangible. Our members are tired of words and no action.”
Piwuna, however, stressed that the union was not invited to participate in today’s meeting.
He explained:
“We don’t have any meeting with the Federal Government tomorrow (today). It’s their meeting, we’re not involved. We have not received any invitation yet for a meeting with the Federal Government.
“However, we’ll let Nigerians know our next line of action after the protests. We operate from the bottom up. The protests are over, so we’ll go back to our members and ask them what is next, and we’ll do exactly what they want us to do as elected representatives.”
The meeting is holding amid growing frustration among lecturers over poor pay and the declining state of academia. Reports indicate that professors, who earn around ₦500,000 monthly, are sometimes forced to reside in officers’ quarters and even struggle to board buses meant for students.
Documents obtained by The PUNCH show the breakdown of the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS). Graduate Assistants currently earn between ₦125,000 and ₦138,020 monthly, while professors are paid between ₦525,010 and ₦633,333.
Assistant Lecturers earn between ₦150,000 and ₦171,487; Lecturer II between ₦186,543 and ₦209,693; Lecturer I between ₦239,292 and ₦281,956; Senior Lecturers between ₦386,101 and ₦480,780; and Readers between ₦436,392 and ₦522,212.
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