The chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) on Tuesday demanded a better welfare package for University lecturers. He stated that no Nigeria Professor earns more than N416,000 as salary in a month.
The Lagos ASUU chairman, Dr Dele Ashiru, made the claim during a Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.
“No Nigeria Professor earns more than N416,000 in a month as total package. We are saying let us renegotiate this agreement so that people’s conditions of service will improve,” he said.
“As I speak to you, our members have been earning the same salary since 2009 till date. I don’t think there is any section of the Nigeria economy and society that has been so treated. The highest-paid professor, which means that if he remains in the university system for the next 10-15 years, will not earn more than the same amount he has been earning since 2009.”
The Lagos ASUU chairman’s comment is coming a day after the ASSU national president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, told the press that the union might be compelled to embark on a fresh nationwide strike if the government fails to implement the Memorandum of Action they signed with the union. He gave the government 21-day ultimatum to do something about the agreement.
Prof. Emmanuel went further to say that both the unpaid academic earned allowance and the university revitalisation fund have not been paid after almost a year of reaching the agreement and the government promising to pay.
At the press briefing, the National ASUU chairman also berates the Federal Government for being deceptive and for failing to honour the agreement they reached with the union that led the union into suspending its almost a year strike action in December 2020.
The 21-day ultimatum given to the government will elapse on Monday 21st of December 2021. If government by then refuse to honour its agreement with ASUU, from all indications, the union may embark on an indefinite strike action.
