A Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics at the University of Lagos, Prof. Tunde Adeoye, has disclosed that most lecturers in the nation’s universities teach on an empty stomach and do the work of four people because of the federal government’s embargo on employment across the institutions.
Adeoye, who was speaking during an interview with journalists in Ota, stressed the need for the Federal Government to increase the salaries of university lecturers to reflect the current economic realities in the country.
He added that the salary of a professor in a Nigerian university was about N500,000 without any deductions, adding that after deductions, it comes to about N300,000.
He noted that in some African countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe, lecturers were paid better than in Nigeria and urged the federal government to make concerted efforts toward improving the living standards of lecturers and their condition of service to prevent brain drain.
Adeoye, who was reacting to the nationwide protests embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) across the country, also urged the Federal Government to urgently review the salaries of lecturers to avert another industrial strike.
According to him, the Federal Government needs to be sensitive to the plights of lecturers and engage them in renegotiating the 2009 agreement, which major issue is improving the salary structure of academics.
“The ASUU members equally have families and aged parents to cater for. As it is now, many of our members cannot pay their house rents.
“Many of our members who were sick have died, while some with hypertension cannot even afford to buy their routine drugs.
“Most lecturers in our universities lecture on an empty stomach and do the work of four people because of the federal government’s embargo on employment across the institutions,” he said.
