Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo
The Pro-Chancellor of Osun State University, Mr. Yusuf Alli (SAN), has called on federal and state governments to conduct an upward review for salaries of lecturers and workers in universities across the country in view of the realities of rising inflation.
Speaking at the 11th convocation ceremony of the university at Olagunsoye Oyinlola Auditorium at the Osogbo Campus, Osun State, the Governing Council Chairman noted that university councils should be allowed to negotiate the salaries and other welfare packages of their workers.
Alli posited that university administrators should be prudent and transparent in their management of resources, adding that government must also be committed to funding university education.
He said: “It is obvious that our educational system is undergoing Tsunami like changes but unfortunately negatively. It is widely known and acknowledged that funding has been a consistent challenge to the advancement of knowledge in our educational sector, this is more so in our universities, some of which are like glorified secondary schools.
“In order to address the problem of incessant strikes by various unions in the universities, it is high time the salaries of workers in the universities be reviewed upward, to meet the realities of inflation. Going forward, we should put in place a system of automatic adjustment of salaries, within an agreed time frame between two and three years to address inflationary trends in the economy, as it happens in other places.
“The councils as the employers in the university system should be empowered to negotiate salaries and other welfare packages for their academic and non-academic staff.
“It is equally suggested that we adopt international best practices in rewarding lecturers by ensuring that those who are able to attract grants to the universities, are paid commensurate to what they are able to attract.”
However, while speaking on the prudent nature of the university, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Clement Adebooye, contended that the institution in the last eight months saved over N300 million in tax liability and N175 million in running costs.
Also in his own remarks, the University’s Chancellor, Dr. Folorunso Alakija, who commended the management for the resuscitation of the MBBS programme, assured the gathering that the state-of-the-art- teaching hospital her family is building for the school would be ready for use in the next few months.
