Lecturers In South-East State-Owned Varsities Least Paid In Nigeria – ASUU

Lecturers employed by universities owned by South-East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo are the least paid across the federation.

The Chairperson of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Comrade Andrew Apeh, stated this during the ‘Political Voices’, a radio programme hosted by Enugu-based Dream FM on Thursday, which was monitored by our correspondent.

According to him, “The governments of the South-East states deliberately do not implement agreements FG reaches with ASUU. Even the 25% and 35% being paid by other universities across the federation are not being implemented in the whole of universities owned by South-East states. That was why during the ceremonial event of the unveiling of the FG/ASUU agreement yesterday, public and state universities were invited to witness it. It now depends on the will of states to follow suit. Why is it only in South East that the problem is? Even earned academic allowances which other state universities pay are not paid in South East.”

He said the new FG/ASUU deal has many reasons for celebration: “The aspect of it that we are celebrating is that it is bringing new condition of service. In the whole of Africa, Nigerian lecturers are the least paid. We can’t talk about the allowances. We have the least salary scale, causing brain drain. Now it has been reviewed upwards. There are also university autonomy and academic freedom. These will give us opportunity to look into our system and bring our contributions that will help in development.

“Our major duties are teaching, community service and research. The renegotiation also helps in introducing good budgetary approach into research. It will help us in research and teaching. When university lecturers are well paid, they can now relax and focus on these core obligations. ASUU is mainly fighting for funding of the system. If we don’t get it right, every other sector will fail. If the university system is decayed, how will it produce the right people to man other sectors? We call on all ASUU members to stand on our feat and confront whoever fails to implement these agreements.”

Also speaking, a social commentator and lecturer, Dr Dele-Maxwell Ugwuanyi, said the case with lecturers in state universities in South East ‘is special’. He claimed that South-East state-owned universities are yet to implement what was agreed three years ago, adding that his colleagues in other state universities outside South East earn double his salary. He lamented that “we are of the same category”.

In his words, “This is because I belong to a certain region. Our (ASUU) president made a clear reference to South East. He was referring to our governors who do not want to implement these agreements. He warned them not to wait for threat of strike before they implement the agreements. He was not referring to the FG alone, he was referring to South-East governors. He knows what they can do. Let our governors implement these agreements so that embarrassment will not come to them as we journey this 2026.”

He explained that a professor in some state universities in North Central receives about N700, 000, but his mate in South East is paid around N400, 000.

“The new agreement takes it up above N1m, and South East may still remain where we are. We cry marginalisation, but we are marginalising ourselves. Education is not IGR. How many scholars come to South East in search of lecturing jobs? We destroy ourselves because some people want to pack the whole money,” Dr Ugwuanyi said.

He commended President Bola Tinubu “for being audacious” since his administration came on board. He also berated former Labour Minister Chris Ngige for “misleading the federal government during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari”.

He said, “The signed agreement is a relief, but let’s hope that there will be no strike again. We hope that there will be no struggle again before the implementation of the agreement. We thank the president for the audacity. He took a bold step in addressing this since 2009. Past administrations have dodged ASUU issues.
“Under Buhari, former Labour Minister Chris Ngige sabotaged ASUU and misled the federal government. It is a pity for Ngige that someone else has taken the credit of what Buhari would have taken. Ngige should regret what he did to ASUU. Tinubu has been audacious in whatever he is doing. He increased the minimum wage to 70%. Most state governors in South East have not started implementing that.”

ASUU and Election Rigging

A contributor during the programme, who did not mention his name, blamed ASUU for Nigeria’s political quagmire. He therefore stated that increasing lecturers’ wage bills was not justified. According to him, ASUU members “rig elections and put us in this mess”, and called on professors “to lead by examples, not laying foundation for generational disasters”.

Responding, Dr Apeh said ASUU was never involved in elections in Nigeria. “We need to get things right about elections,” he said. “Anybody saying that it is ASUU that is spoiling the electoral system is getting it wrong. All lecturers are not ASUU members. If INEC invites ASUU to conduct elections for them as ad-hoc staff, you will see the difference. By then ASUU can even trace their members to say this person did this. Any lecturer that does anything is there as an individual, and not ASUU. What you see is not ASUU, and they should not credit it to ASUU. Even now there are other groups who are lecturers who are not ASUU members.”

Speaking on the same matter, Dr Ugwuanyi recalled that former INEC Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega once sought ASUU’s involvement in election, which he said did not sail because of the terms.

He said, “INEC under Jega wrote ASUU, and ASUU said the only condition to participate is by allowing us to nominate our members to INEC roles because we know the upright ones. INEC said no. What they do today is to invite VCs who will nominate their cronies. ASUU has never as a body participated in elections.”