The Federal Government has proposed a 23.5 per cent salary increase for lecturers as it attempts to find a solution to the ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Addressing vice-chancellors and other stakeholders in the university system during a meeting on Tuesday, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said that the government will increase professors’ salaries by 35 per cent.
According to The PUNCH, Adamu also noted that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) warned against signing agreements which the government will not be able to meet.
Adamu disclosed this while speaking during the meeting with vice-chancellors and other stakeholders in the university system.
He said, “The Federal Government can only afford a 23.5% salary increase for all categories of the workforce in Federal Universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35% upward review.
“Henceforth, allowances that pertain to ad-hoc duties of the academic and non-academic staff shall be paid as at when due by the Governing Councils of Universities to which such services are rendered and to the staff who perform
them.
“That a sum of 150 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalization of Federal Universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year, and that a sum of 50 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding areas of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the First Quarter of the year”.
Speaking at the end of the meeting, the pro-chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, Professor Peter Okebukola, noted that the government was ready to go all out to ensure that the university lecturers return back to school.
