In a press briefing on Thursday, June 20, 2024, El-Maude Gambo Jibreel, the branch leader of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at Modibbo Adama University (MAU), Yola, highlighted the dire financial plight of Nigerian university professors, labeling them as the lowest-paid in the world.
“Our members have been on the same salary for over 15 years; the last time our salaries were reviewed was in 2009,” Jibreel lamented. He underscored that Nigerian lecturers are not only the least paid in Africa but globally, with a professor earning less than $300 per month at the current exchange rate of N1,489 per dollar.
Jibreel emphasized the misunderstanding surrounding ASUU’s strikes and urged the public to comprehend the union’s struggle. “There is a need for the public to understand what the struggle of ASUU is all about and join hands with ASUU to save the educational sector in Nigeria and place Nigeria on the development path,” he stated.
He elaborated on the motivations behind ASUU’s eight-month strike in 2022, which aimed to push the federal government to implement the Memorandum of Action (MoA) agreed upon on February 7, 2019. “We are not demanding anything new but the implementation of what was agreed upon in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022,” Jibreel explained.
Jibreel also criticized the federal government’s budget allocation for universities, noting that the funds do not reach the universities’ accounts. “The budgetary allocation to education has been so disappointing. N170 billion was earmarked as a revitalisation fund in the last budget, but the money has not reached the universities,” he remarked, highlighting the severe infrastructure decay in public universities.
In conclusion, Jibreel called on Nigerians, the media, labor movements, student organizations, and civil society to support ASUU’s efforts to improve the Nigerian university system. “We assure you that the union is in a patriotic struggle to reposition the Nigerian university system,” he asserted.
