ASUU Rejects Proposed Salary Increment By FG

The Benin Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the proposed salary increment by the federal government, describing it as a mere drop in the ocean.
The Benin Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Prof. Monday Lewis Igbafen, stated that poor pay for lecturers was hindering the desired reversal of the brain drain syndrome currently bedevilling the university education in Nigeria.
Igbafen said in a press statement issued in Benin that it was sad that the federal government has demonstrated a clear unwillingness to quickly and holistically resolve all the outstanding issues.
He said the federal government should be serious for once to put the unresolved issues behind them by satisfactorily concluding the renegotiation of the 2009 FGM/ASUU agreement and genuinely addressing other ancillary issues in contention.
He said,” the salary and conditions of service components remain a sore point that needs a radical approach to stem the impending crisis in the system.
“We have rejected the proposed salary increment by Government because it is a mere drop in the ocean that is Incapable of achieving the desired reversal of the brain drain s ndrome currently bedevilling university education in the country.
“We are saying enough is enough to the back-and-forth approach of the Federal Government to the negotiation. This half-hearted approach must STOP NOW. This we are talking with ASUU without results must stop.
“The most obvious implication of the refusal of the Government to conclude this negotiation is that university teachers in Nigeria have continued with the same salary regime of 2009 when the value o the naira to a dollar was N120, and this is even added to the fact that salaries in other sectors have since been reviewed upward twice or more.
“It is sad to note that what a professor at the bar earns in today’s Nigeria is less than $400 per month, which is a scandalous under-valuation of Nigerian scholars. To continue to remain on the same salary regime for more than 15 years without a meaningful review is not only wicked and inhuman but also a catalyst for resistance, industrial disharmony and brain drain.”
According to Prof. Igbafen, statements coming from government functionaries did not support genuine efforts to resolve the issues on the table speedily.
“They are deliberately undermining the negotiation process by their subtle misrepresentations of issues and agreements, including the so-called government offers and their implementation, especially as they relate to the part-payment of promotion arrears dating as far back to 2017, and the release of third-party deductions, which are a part of our members’ unpaid benefits for years,” he said.
He however stated that government still had time at its disposal to resolve all unresolved issues. “Our Government should accept the immutable reality that nothing is too much to invest in the education of its citizenry because it is the bedrock of any society that desires development.”