What Many Should Know About University Lecturers in Nigeria (ASUU) -By Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies

– Re: WHAT MANY DON’T KNOW ABOUT UNIVERSITY LECTURERS IN NIGERIA (A cloned copied write-up)

Recently, I had read the Press release of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) published by ‘Our Reporters’ on Tuesday, 15 February 2022, titled: “Students Blast ASUU, FG Over Strike, Threaten Protest” as I usually read all publications by NANS with keen interest. NANS has knocked the Federal Government (FG) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over their inability to successfully resolve issues and reach an agreement which has resulted in industrial action by ASUU this week.

Thus, “NANS, in a statement Monday by its President, Asefon Sunday Adedayo, threatened to embark on a nationwide protest to force lecturers back to class. ASUU had declared a four-week strike effective from Monday, February 14, 2022, to protest the government’s failure to implement its agreement with the union…. The NANS president blamed both the FG and ASUU for the industrial action, saying the student body expected both parties to reach a compromise and do all that was required to avert the strike.”

In the same vein, “The President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, at a press briefing in Lagos, said the union tried to avoid the strike but that the federal government was not responsive to its demands. Osodeke said the forceful payment of ASUU members’ salaries and emoluments with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and non-adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) have continued to short-change the union members. Other issues raised by the union included failure to release the white paper many months after the visitation panels to universities submitted their reports; non-payment of outstanding Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), illegal withholding of payment of EAA to union members at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife as well as victimisation of academics in state universities.

May I state that, “Most Nigerians have never cared to hear from the side of ASUU, but I am of the opinion, we all should try to. As an insider, I know that ASUU’s complaint is usually about sustainability of the university system, rather than personal interest and the ASUU strike would be justifiable to save public universities in Nigeria, because the FG is always reneging on their promise while they actually can afford to fund public universities adequately. But they are prioritising other matters over and above education. It is unfair! FG needs to be reminded that education is a determinant factor for change and development of any country; therefore, it is of utmost importance that the government gives ASUU full attention, and stop defaulting but comply with the negotiations and agreements.”

However, rather than to at this point join issues with the FG, ASUU and NANS as they are resolving the matter, may I seize this rare opportunity to share another interesting article I had recently read on, “WHAT MANY DON’T KNOW ABOUT UNIVERSITY LECTURERS IN NIGERIA (A cloned copied write-up)”, I have directly re-titled, “What Many Should Know About University Lecturers in Nigeria (ASUU)”. It is astonishing that, this is the ‘BEAUTIFUL LIFE’ of the Nigerian university lecturers that you do not know but need to. Take note that whenever ASUU is on strike, it has never being about this particular issue, it has nothing to do with this caree path, but rather something to do with the entire University system and FG reneging on their agreements with ASUU.

I read this interesting account by a colleague which is a MUST share: Please read on: “About two (2) weeks ago, a friend visited me in my office and while we were discussing, he said he will love to be a lecturer. He is currently working in a good FG establishment with a relatively OK salary. He has worked there for about 10 years. I don’t know what his salary is, but I asked him about the starting salary for a graduate and he said it’s about N220,000 per month. I was like wow! That’s not a bad monthly salary for a starter and he said yeah. Then, I told him that coming to academics is not a bad idea but that as a friend, he needs to know a bit about it before making a decision.

So, I told him that if he should leave that job for a university lecturing job, and since he has got no MSc degree yet, he will be employed as a Graduate Assistant (GA) with a starting salary of about N95,000 per month. Is he prepared to drop from close to N300,000 to N95,000? He was like that is unbelievable, you are underpaid. And I said that is not all. While you had been getting a promotion after a specified period in your organisation, in the university you won’t be promoted after employment till you get a Master’s degree.

I continued… As a GA you will have to enrol in a master’s program. There is no research grant for staff in training, so you may have to save your salary or take a loan to do the MSc research. As staff in training, you are expected to finish within 3 years. Whenever you are done, you will be upgraded to Assistant Lecturer to earn about N118,270 per month.

As Assistant Lecturer, you enrol for a PhD. There is still no PhD research grant except you are lucky to get a TETFund scholarship. If you aren’t lucky, you save part of your salary for the PhD research which you are expected to finish within 5 years. It could take a longer time. An Assistant Lecturer would have to pay his PhD school fees, pay to accomplish his PhD studies, settle his family, pay to attend conference, pay to take care of his health and that of his family, pay to publish journal articles and book chapters and pay to conduct researches. All with his slavish salary.

3 years later you are expected to have published 1 journal paper or gone to conferences to present 2 papers from the research you did with your salary to be qualified for promotion. If you don’t have that, the years you have taught do not matter, you will have to wait until you meet the said requirement. If you succeeded, you will be promoted to the rank of Lecturer II with a starting salary of about N129,724 per month.

Many don’t even know that in our condition of service as Nigerian academics, research comes before teaching. The minimum you pay to publish in a local (Nigerian) journal is N30,000 while international journals are paid for in hard currency ranging from N80,000 and above depending on the journal quality, that’s minus the amount you spend to conduct the actual research. For a lecturer in Nigeria to move from one level to another, he has to spend huge percentage of his slavish salary to conduct researches and also spend another huge percentage of same salary to publish the research outcome.

3 years later you are expected to have published 3 journal papers with conference papers from the research you did with your salary to be qualified for promotion to Lecturer I. If you don’t have that, you will have to wait until you meet the requirement irrespective of the years you have taught. If you succeeded, you will get a salary of close to N160,809 per month as Lecturer I.

The next promotion after another 3 years is to the rank of Senior Lecturer. To qualify for this rank, you must have obtained your PhD with at least 6 journal papers in recognised journals and 4 conference papers. Without meeting the waiting period, PhD, and the publication requirement, you won’t be promoted no matter the number of years and number of students you have taught. Note that you will do the research with your personal fund and pay for the publication with your personal fund. By the time a university lecturer in Nigeria becomes a senior lecturer, he must have spent half of all the salary he has earned back into his salary earning job. As a senior lecturer, you will have a salary of N222,229 per month. That is the salary of a starter in your organisation in same Nigeria.

The promotion to the rank of Reader (Associate Professor) will come after 3 years and after meeting the research and publication requirements of 10 journal papers and 5 conference papers, PG supervision, etc. That earns you a salary of N277,179 per month.

Then you become a Professor 3 years later after meeting its own research and publications requirement of 15 journal papers and 7 conference papers, PhD supervision, etc., to earn a salary of N332,833 per month. Remember a Professor is a person with a degree, a master’s degree and a terminal PhD, whom has published widely and globally, whom has produced many PhD’s, M.Sc’s and degree holders and must have generated humongous human capital for Nigeria. Yet the salary of a professor in Nigerian universities is below that of a first degree holder in many governmental institutions in same Nigeria.

With the increasing number of students, loads of script to mark, teaching does not count for promotion but the output from the research that is not provided for. You save your salary to earn a promotion. No book grant, you buy books for yourself with your salary. Nigerian public University lecturers are perhaps the only workers that use their salary to work to achieve the criteria set for their promotion.

I told him that if he should join the academics now, it will take him the next 12 years at least, to become a Senior Lecturer to earn the salary of a starter in his present organisation. And that since FG thinks the lecturers deserve no pay rise, it will take him the next 15 years of serious academic and research output to earn his present salary in his present organisation. Meanwhile, he will have to fund all that with his salary for that 15 years.

I asked if he still want to be a lecturer and he was mute. He was like this is bad and not fair. Then I said, when you see us in class teaching with all smiles and doing our best, it is not because we have a good salary and working conditions, but because we love the job and try to manage the little we are receiving to get the job done.

This is the life of the academic that you do not know. Their life may look glittering but it is not gold. Teaching isn’t part of the yardstick of promoting Nigerian lecturers, research and publishing the research are the parameters used in promoting Nigerian academics. Many don’t know that in all Nigerian civil service, university lecturers are the only ones that plough back their meagre salary into doing what they were paid the salary for.

The poor welfare and work environment is telling on the quality of the output from the university. Some lecturers, especially the younger ones, are already getting pissed off and leaving or planning to leave. So, how long can we sustain this? Everyone keeps saying every lecturer should have a side hustle and stop complaining. That will be the worst thing to happen to Nigerian universities. Some of our colleagues with side hustle just come to teach and leave to manage their side hustle. You can ask the students the impact of such a lecturer on them. You don’t want to have a university where lecturers just come to teach and leave for their side hustle. A university is not designed that way.

Many don’t know that Nigerian lecturers are currently overburdened by insanely above capacity lecturer students ratio with no commissural benefits. Many don’t know that successive Nigerian governments, this government inclusive, have refused to review lecturers’ salary since 2009. Despite the fact that the salaries ought to have been upwardly reviewed since 2015 at most. Many don’t know that in almost all the struggle that university lecturers suffer, they suffer for the sustenance of the university system in Nigeria. Many don’t know that Nigerian governments are ready to pay lecturers huge salary but at the expense of the students. Yes, the government is ever ready to geometrically increase lecturers’ salary but students must pay tuition fees. Many don’t know that that’s the core reason why ASUU members have to endure slavish salary for more than a decade.

My noble union, ASUU, currently enmeshed in its NEC-for-NEC meeting should know that execution of the renegotiated and wilfully signed stance is the only panacea of stopping this total, comprehensive and encompassing strike. ASUU fight is for the survival of the system where you want your child to come for a degree program. We have helped the state governors to destroy public primary and secondary education. You have a choice to take side with the FG towards the destruction of the remnant of the education system or join the fight to save the system. The choice is all yours.”

To conclude, it is embarrassing to read in the News, of Daily Trust, on February 16, 2022, that, “The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, has said that he was surprised by the decision of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to embark on a one-month strike.” He had said this on Wednesday while fielding questions from State House reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. How could he be surprised if he was following up the dialogue and terrain, since he has been calling the meetings!

The minister, further explained, while commenting on allegations from ASUU about his absence from meetings, saying, “ASUU will never say that I don’t attend meetings. I always call the meeting myself. The meetings I didn’t attend were those that happened when I was in hospital in Germany.“ Ah! We had thought everyone takes treatment while sick in Nigeria as promised by the Buhari Muhammadu APC lead administration, if he as the president couldn’t comply with the ‘No Travel’ promise. Why is the FG always reneging on PROMISES!

Read more …
(©Amoka & Hashim Muhammad Suleiman, Ph.D, Cloned Edition – 2022).

https://dailytrust.com/students-blast-asuu-fg-over-strike-threaten-protest
https://dailytrust.com/nigeria-daily-university-campuses-in-disarray-as-asuu-strike-clocks-one-week
https://thenationonlineng.net/asuu-strike-unnecessary-says-fed-govt/
https://tribuneonlineng.com/asuu-now-has-no-justification-for-strike-action-fg/