With no end in view to the lingering Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, a retired Permanent Secretary, Sonny Echono has backed the strike action due to the embarrassing salary received by Nigerian lecturers despite their contributions to National development.
His words: “On salaries of lecturers, I feel ashamed because I had the privilege to represent Nigeria at a global conference where former presidents and prime ministers were in attendance. I was asked if it is true that a professor after 20 years still earns less than a thousand dollars a month, I couldn’t answer that question, I only said that we are doing something about it”.
The retired permanent secretary turned TETFund Executive Secretary said.
” You don’t know how embarrassing the salary of a Nigerian Lecturer is till you are filing a form to compete with academics around the world and on the form, you are to select your current salary. It is usually in dollars. Our salary range is usually not on the list. You have to state the dollar equivalent of your salary on the provided empty field named “others”. It is not on the drop-down menu because an academic anywhere in the world is not expected to earn such a ridiculous salary.
” When the Nigerian government knows the worth of their universities, the Professor’s salary would be next to the salary of the CJN. But today, ordinary tax collectors at FIRS earn higher than Professors. And the Ministry of Finance where there was more than N170bn for someone to swindle is blabbing that a professor cannot earn the naira equivalent of $3,000 and Nigerians are clapping. Tomorrow you will be asking why Nigerian Professors can’t be like the Professors in Oxford. Are they treated like Oxford Professors?
” When we are ready to make progress, there will be a call for a national conference with all the stakeholders in attendance to discuss “our idea of a Nigerian university system,” he concluded.
