Nigeria’s government could only afford 23.5 percent salary increase for lecturers, while a 35% increment will be enjoyed by professors, the country’s education minister said Tuesday.
“The Federal Government can only afford a 23.5% salary increase for all category of the workforce in Federal Universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35% upward review,” Minister of Education Adamu Adamu said in Abuja after meeting with heads of universities.
The minister also noted that the president warned against signing agreements that his predecessor reached with the lecturers, saying they will not be able to meet.
“Henceforth, allowances that pertain to ad-hoc duties of the academic and non-academic staff shall be paid as at when due by the Governing Councils of Universities to which such services are rendered and to the staff who perform them.
“That a sum of 150 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalization of Federal Universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year, and that a sum of 50 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding areas of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the First Quarter of the year,” the minister said.
For almost seven months, students in federal government-owned universities have been stuck at home, forced out of class by a protracted strike by lecturers.
The protest over pay, welfare and crumbling facilities by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has shut down universities since February 14 in the latest industrial action by academic workers in public universities across Africa’s most populous nation.
The union’s leadership, however, declared an indefinite strike earlier this month after several extensions to give the government time to meet their demands.
The latest strike is the second longest. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Nigerian university teachers went on strike for nine months – the longest in the nation’s history.
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