The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has accused the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Federal Universities (CVCNU) of spreading lies and misinformation with regards to the salaries received by senior polytechnic lecturers.
ASUP said that the claim made by the Vice Chancellors that senior lecturers in polytechnics earned more than university professors was false and could cause issues during negotiations for polytechnic lecturers.
ASUP, in a statement today, September 7 by its Secretary General, Abdullahi Yalwa, said: “Our Union’s attention has been drawn to a statement from the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities contained in the report submitted by the body to the government during the meeting of Vice Chancellors, Chairmen of Governing Councils of Federal Universities and the Minister of Education on September 6, 2022.
“An extract from the submission made by the CVCNU was emphatic in conveying the erroneous impression that chief lecturers in Nigeria’s polytechnics (and colleges of education) earn more than professors in the nation’s universities.
“The position of the CVCNU was made in order to justify the legitimate demands of our sister union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities for a wage increase.
“While we understand the disposition of the CVCNU to support the aspirations of ASUU, putting out fallacious statements as it affects the emoluments of other workers in the other tiers of tertiary education in the country will only undermine same aspiration.
“Apart from the falsehood, it is improper for the CVCNU to have made such statement at a time that our Union is also renegotiating emoluments for our members as it has the potentials of creating the wrong impression about the emoluments of workers in polytechnics and Colleges of Education, thereby undermining the ongoing renegotiation process between the FGN and Polytechnics.
“Without doubt, the CVCNU has access to the salary structures of the different cadres of staff across the tertiary education landscape and therefore has no basis to indulge in needless extrapolation. The agitation for wage review in the university system can indeed proceed creditably without such fallacious reference by parties as such can only breed needless rivalry in the sector,” the statement read.
In my view, polytechnic lecturers have started behaving like Nigerian legislators, who try as much as possible to hide their salaries and emoluments from the Nigerian public. ASUU salary scale is already in the public domain, so if it is being alleged that polytechnic lecturers earn more than university lecturers, then nothing prevents the salary of polytechnic lecturers from being published in the newspapers like the university lecturers have done. It is not enough to deny verbally that the allegation is wrong. Let the polytechnic lecturers publish their salary scale for Nigerians to see instead of playing hide and seek. I was privileged to chair an interview panel where a polytechnic chief lecturer tendered his payslip when he applied for job in the university, and I can authoritatively confirm, from what I saw, that his monthly salary was about N750,000 plus, which no professor in any federal university earns. Similarly, a chief lecturer in the federal colleges of education, who may not necessarily be a PhD holder earns almost the same salary as a university professor.