Strike looming: ASUU, VCs condemn lecturers’ N525,000 monthly salary

Strike looming: ASUU, VCs condemn lecturers’ N525,000 monthly salary

After concluding its nationwide protests on Tuesday, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are set to hold congresses to determine their next course of action.

The development comes as the Federal Government convenes today to address long-standing demands related to the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, which sparked the recent nationwide university protests.

Earlier this year, the administration of President Bola Tinubu released N50 billion to settle earned academic allowances owed to university lecturers and staff. However, ASUU continues to press for clear commitments on better salaries, improved conditions of service, increased university funding, institutional autonomy, and a review of the laws governing the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The meeting, expected to be attended by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa; the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi; and representatives of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, is expected to produce a timetable for signing and the phased implementation of the renegotiated agreement, along with related reports.

Government sources in the Education and Labour ministries told The Press that today’s discussions would focus on reconciling the Yayale Ahmed committee draft concluded in December 2024 with the original 2009 agreement and subsequent recommendations, including the Nimi Briggs report.

Also on the table is how to phase the fiscal commitments into the national budget and produce a legally binding instrument for signature.

Speaking with a correspondent on Wednesday, ASUU president, Prof. Chris Piwuna, said the union expected commitment from the government.

“I truly hope they will come up with something tangible. Our members are tired of words and no action.”

Piwuna, however, clarified that ASUU was not invited for today’s meeting.

Piwuna affirmed that the union was done with nationwide protests and was poised to hold congresses to decide on its next line of action.

“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,” Piwuna said.

Ahead of Tuesday’s protests, ASUU branches had warned that their patience was exhausted after the renegotiation concluded in December 2024 and was formally submitted to the government in February.

At a press conference in Abuja, ASUU’s Abuja zonal coordinator, Prof. Al-Amin Abdullahi, stated that the union had fulfilled its part of the agreement and expected the government to act on the report without delay. He noted that previous reports had often ended up “filed in cabinets” and warned that inaction could lead to another shutdown of public universities.

ASUU has also rejected the government’s proposal of loan-style “support funds” as a substitute for owed cash entitlements.

The meeting comes amid ongoing complaints from ASUU members about poor salaries and deteriorating academic conditions, with professors reportedly earning around N500,000 monthly, sometimes residing in officers’ quarters, and struggling to access student transport.

According to documents on the Consolidated University Academic Salary structure, Graduate Assistants earn between N125,000 and N138,020 monthly, while professors earn between N525,010 and N633,333. Assistant Lecturers earn N150,000–N171,487; Lecturer II, N186,543–N209,693; Lecturer I, N239,292–N281,956; Senior Lecturer, N386,101–N480,780; and Readers, N436,392–N522,212.

Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, also expressed concern over the declining morale among lecturers.

Ogundipe said, “The lecturers are tired, the morale is low, and lecturers are poorly paid. Academic staff members are on the edge, itching to leave. The standard of teaching is going down. As Vice Chancellor, I earned N900,000 as salary. My present salary as a professor, still in the system, is N700,000. My son saw my pay slip and described it as a joke. Do you know that some lecturers sleep in the office?”

ASUU president Piwuna said many lecturers earned just over N400,000 and accused the government of neglecting academics while prioritising pay raises for politicians.

He described as unsurprising the FG neglects the lecturers while the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission was proposing an upward review of the salaries of public office holders.

He added that stagnant salaries had crippled universities’ ability to attract quality lecturers, worsened morale, and affected output.

Piwuna said, “Well, from experience, Nigerian elites or the political class always look after themselves. So, we’re not surprised that the arms of government that Nigerians are most dissatisfied with are the ones that are getting the pay rise, while those who work day and night to ensure that the country keeps moving, who are making tangible contributions to the growth of this country, are being neglected.

“Our salaries have remained stagnant, and that has affected the quality of lecturers that we can attract into the universities. That has also affected our morale, and because our morale is low, certainly the output would also be affected.

And so our salaries have been a major area of concern for our members.

“Our salaries, our condition of service have always been a product of collective bargaining. And the last time this was done was in 2009.

Talking about increases, for instance, this government has made an increase through the minimum wage, but all that was added to our salaries, and it’s for every public service, is N40,000.

“Many professors who were earning just over N400,000 have still not reached the N500,000 mark you mentioned, except for those who have received annual increments for 10 or 20 years,” said a senior lecturer.

In a similar vein, Prof. Tunde Adeoye, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Lagos, called on the Federal Government to urgently review lecturers’ salaries to prevent another industrial strike. He emphasized that the government must be sensitive to lecturers’ challenges and engage them in renegotiating the 2009 agreement, noting that the core issue is improving the academic salary structure.

Adeoye highlighted the need to adjust university lecturers’ salaries to reflect the country’s current economic realities. He pointed out that a professor’s salary in a Nigerian university is around N500,000 before deductions, which falls to about N300,000 after deductions. He also noted that lecturers in some African countries, such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, receive better pay than their Nigerian counterparts and urged the government to improve lecturers’ living standards and conditions of service to prevent brain drain.

“The ASUU members also have families and elderly parents to care for. Currently, many cannot even afford their house rents. Several members who were ill have passed away, while some with hypertension cannot afford their routine medications,” Adeoye added.

Similarly, Prof. Andrew Haruna, Secretary of the Committee of Vice Chancellors, criticized successive Nigerian governments for neglecting the education sector and reducing the value of academics to mere salary figures. He stressed that what lecturers truly need is an enabling environment for teaching, research, and meaningful contribution to national development.

Having taught in over 10 European universities, Haruna lamented that Nigerian academics are undervalued compared to their international peers. He said, “I have taught in numerous universities across Europe and was trained there, yet I returned to Nigeria to contribute. If I receive only a meager salary here, it reflects the kind of leadership we have. Does the government truly respect Nigerian citizens? Does it respect Nigerian academia?”

He argued that the challenge extends beyond low pay to include poor infrastructure and the lack of conducive conditions for intellectual work. Haruna also highlighted the global mobility of academics, noting, “If I earn $4,000 a month abroad and come to Nigeria to receive only N400,000, it shows the value placed on me. Professors are highly mobile; we can work in Nigeria, the US, or Germany. Just as a Nigerian student may pursue a master’s degree in America and a PhD in Japan, this profession is inherently international.”