Lecturers’ New Pay to Gulp Extra N20bn

The current wage bill of a total of 108,336 academic and non-academic staff of federal tertiary institutions in the country is N105,759,117,709 per annum.
Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, who disclosed this in Abuja yesterday gave the breakdown as follows: universities, with a staff population of 74,652 have a total bill of N70,238,273, 666; polytechnics have 19,052 staff with a wage bill of N19,470,041,306; while colleges of education have a staff strength of 14,632 and a wage bill of N16,050,802,737.

N.B Visit www.campusflava.com for updates and information related to other schools.  

Egwu, who briefed the press on the ongoing impasse between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government said: “As a result of consultations, government has offered, through the various councils of federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, 40 per cent increase for academic staff and 20 per cent for non-academic staff.
“The overall implication of the increased salary package for all the federal tertiary institutions is an additional N20,662,216,956.00 with an effective date of July 2009.”
According to him, “government’s offer with regards to the entire re-negotiated package is hinged upon the fact that there must be unqualified commitment on the part of the staff unions and that in the pursuit of their avowed goals, they will respect the sanctity of the regular university academic calendar, which all must strive to return to and maintain.”
Not only that, he added: “ASUU should commit itself to the primacy of dialogue and due process over and above those tactics which undermine and disrupt good order in the conduct of university business.”
The minister said another round of negotiations begin on Monday, following the directive by the Vice-President.
ASUU President, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, confirmed this on telephone, adding that the negotiations are to be concluded within two weeks.
On the unresolved issue of signing the provisional draft agreement, the minister reiterated that the Federal Government could only go into an agreement with its own federal institutions.
“As you are aware, ASUU is currently composed of staff from state and federal universities. Any agreement entered into with state institutions is illegal as FGN cannot commit any state government since education is in the concurrent list in the constitution,” he said.
He then appealed to the general public to appreciate government’s effort at addressing the challenges within the sector, adding that despite the ongoing crisis, government’s doors remained open to dialogue.
He also appealed to all unions on strike to return to work and allow Nigerian children who have become the victims of the crises to go back to school.
By Bukola Olatunji