Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ilorin, Prof. Moyosore Ajao, has said that no lecturer in the nation’s universities earn $1,000 per month, which is equivalent to an N450,000 per month as salary in the country.
Speaking on the state of the nation, Ajao said that the union was not against the resumption of students in the nation’s universities but the resumption must accompany the minimal protocols laid down by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
According to him, “it is disheartening that no matter your years of teaching as professors in the nation’s universities, your take home pay is not more than $1000 that equivalent to N450,000 per months as salary”.
He said that the take home pay of these senior lecturers was being used by the individuals in the country to feed their dogs adding that “the development will continue to portend serious danger to the educational advancement of the country.”
Ajao stressed that “the union was disturbed when people were castigating the ASUU of not enrolling on Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPS) of the federal government when it showed that some people coordinating the policy were allegedly out to stop the growth of lecturers in the nation’s universities.”
Heopined that “the lecturers of the nation’s Universities have parents like others and would not want any inherent danger for their children in view of the current situation of the world occassioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For example, at University of Ilorin whère I work, many students are staying off campus and they would like to join cabs from various parts of Ilorin to the campus. How are we going to achieve social distancing in conveying these students to the campus? And this is what we are saying about the possibility of transfer of the COVID-19.
“Apart from this, in the university, there is a course at the Chemistry department that was always attended by over 4,500 students and how are we going to manage this situation? But if the appropriate authorities can maintain the approved minimal protocols of the PTF on COVID-19 then we shall know how the resumption will go.
“But, the essence is that, no one would like to lose his or her children to this pandemic and it is high time the government watch this very well before they ask the students to resume at their various universities.”
