A Professor of Zoology at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Tola Badejo, says the ‘no work, no pay’ decision of the Federal Government cannot apply to both professors and lecturers in Nigerian universities.
He made the comment on Wednesday during an interview on
Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, amid the lingering crisis in the nation’s
university sector.
“Why should we have to set up another committee to look at
what is obvious? ‘No work, no pay’ can never apply to professors and university
lecturers,” said Professor Badejo.
“Teaching is just a small fraction of what we do. We are
researchers, we grade exams, and we mark scripts. No professor or lecturer will
abandon research because he is on strike, we work every day, we work from
home.”
Professor Badejo made the remarks a day after the Federal
Government set up a tactical committee to review its ‘no work, no pay’ stance
against members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Academic activities in the nation’s government-owned
universities have been paralysed since February 14 when members of ASUU, who
are lecturers, went on strike.
This prolonged crisis has kept students out of the classroom
for nearly seven months with no end in sight, as several negotiations between
the government and the union have failed.
The constitution of the tactical committee to review the ‘no
work, no pay’ decision is the latest move by the government in its resolve to
ensure normalcy is restored in the universities.
But Professor Badejo, who is also a member of the union,
believes the government needs to do more to improve the university system for
quality education.
“In my department, every lecturer is doing the work of four
lecturers, and that is what the Earned Academic Allowance means,” he explained.
“It has been said that this will be done in the next year’s allowance, but
nobody is going to take any government serious on promissory notes.”
He also rejected the percentage of increase in salary
proposed by the government, saying the 23.5 per cent and 35 per cent rates for
all categories of the university workforce and professorial cadre respectively,
are not acceptable.
“As long as a professor earns less than a senator, a major
in the army; it is not acceptable. Even what they have promised, they have not
released it,” the don said.
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