Education

ASUU, VCs decry Profs’ N525,000 monthly pay – Strike Looms

Published

1 year ago

August 28, 2025

Following the conclusion of its nationwide protests on Tuesday, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities are set to hold congresses to decide their next line of action.

This comes as the Federal Government meets today to address long-standing agitations over the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, which triggered nationwide protests across universities on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, the President Bola Tinubu administration released N50bn to settle earned academic allowances owed to university lecturers and staff.

However, ASUU has consistently demanded clear commitments on improved salaries, conditions of service, university funding, autonomy, and a review of laws governing the National Universities Commission and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.

The meeting, expected to be attended by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa; the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi; and representatives of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, is expected to produce a timetable for signing and the phased implementation of the renegotiated agreement, along with related reports.

Government sources in the Education and Labour ministries said that today’s discussions would focus on reconciling the Yayale Ahmed committee draft concluded in December 2024 with the original 2009 agreement and subsequent recommendations, including the Nimi Briggs report.

Also on the table is how to phase the fiscal commitments into the national budget and produce a legally binding instrument for signature.

Speaking with our correspondent on Wednesday, ASUU president, Prof. Chris Piwuna, said the union expected commitment from the government.

“I truly hope they will come up with something tangible. Our members are tired of words and no action.”

Piwuna, however, clarified that ASUU was not invited for today’s meeting.

Piwuna affirmed that the union was done with nationwide protests and was poised to hold congresses to decide on its next line of action.

“We don’t have any meeting with the Federal Government tomorrow (today). It’s their meeting, we’re not involved. We have not received any invitation yet for a meeting with the Federal Government.

“However, we’ll let Nigerians know our next line of action after the protests. We operate from the bottom up. The protests are over, so we’ll go back to our members and ask them what is next, and we’ll do exactly what they want us to do as elected representatives,” Piwuna said.

Ahead of Tuesday’s protests, ASUU branches had warned that their patience was exhausted after the renegotiation concluded in December 2024 and was formally submitted to the government in February.

At a press conference in Abuja, ASUU’s Abuja zonal coordinator, Prof. Al-Amin Abdullahi, said the union had fulfilled its part of the bargain and expected the government to adopt the report without delay.

He noted that earlier reports never advanced beyond “filing cabinets” and stressed that failure to act could trigger another shutdown of public universities.

ASUU had also rejected the government’s offer of loan-style “support funds” in place of cash entitlements.

Today’s meeting comes as ASUU members had consistently lamented poor pay, worsening state of academics, with professors earning about N500,000 monthly, sleeping in officers ‘ quarters, and reportedly struggling to join buses meant for students.

Documents obtained show that under the Consolidated University Academic Salary structure, Graduate Assistants earn between N125,000 and N138,020 monthly, while professors earn between N525,010 and N633,333.

Assistant Lecturers earn between N150,000 and N171,487; Lecturer II (N186,543–N209,693); Lecturer I (N239,292–N281,956); Senior Lecturer (N386,101–N480,780); and Readers (N436,392–N522,212).

A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, lamented the erosion of morale among lecturers.

Ogundipe said, “The lecturers are tired, the morale is low, and lecturers are poorly paid. Academic staff members are on the edge, itching to leave. The standard of teaching is going down. As Vice Chancellor, I earned N900,000 as salary. My present salary as a professor, still in the system, is N700,000. My son saw my pay slip and described it as a joke. Do you know that some lecturers sleep in the office?”

ASUU president Piwuna said many lecturers earned just over N400,000 and accused the government of neglecting academics while prioritising pay raises for politicians.

He described as unsurprising the FG neglects the lecturers while the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission was proposing an upward review of the salaries of public office holders.

He added that stagnant salaries had crippled universities’ ability to attract quality lecturers, worsened morale, and affected output.

Piwuna said, “Well, from experience, Nigerian elites or the political class always look after themselves. So, we’re not surprised that the arms of government that Nigerians are most dissatisfied with are the ones that are getting the pay rise, while those who work day and night to ensure that the country keeps moving, who are making tangible contributions to the growth of this country, are being neglected.

“Our salaries have remained stagnant, and that has affected the quality of lecturers that we can attract into the universities. That has also affected our morale, and because our morale is low, certainly the output would also be affected. And so our salaries have been a major area of concern for our members.

“Our salaries, our condition of service have always been a product of collective bargaining. And the last time this was done was in 2009. Talking about increases, for instance, this government has made an increase through the minimum wage, but all that was added to our salaries, and it’s for every public service, is N40,000.

“So, professors that were earning a little over N400,000 have still not been able to get to the N500,000 mark that you’re talking about, except for professors that have had annual increases for maybe 10, 20 years.”

In the same vein, a Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Lagos, Prof. Tunde Adeoye, urged the Federal Government to urgently review salaries of lecturers to avert another industrial strike.

According to him, the Federal Government needs to be sensitive to the plight of lecturers and engage them in renegotiating the 2009 agreement, adding that the major issue is improving the salary structure of academics.

Adeoye stressed the need for the Federal Government to increase the salaries of university lecturers to reflect the current economic realities in the country.

He added that the salary of a professor in a Nigerian university was about N500,000 without any deductions, adding that after deductions, it comes to about N300,000.

He noted that in some African countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe, lecturers were paid better than in Nigeria, and urged the federal government to make concerted efforts toward improving the living standards of lecturers and their condition of service to prevent brain drain.

Adeoye said, “The ASUU members equally have families and aged parents to cater for. As it is now, many of our members cannot pay their house rents.

“Many of our members who were sick have died, while some with hypertension cannot even afford to buy their routine drugs.”

In the same vein, Secretary of the Committee of Vice Chancellors, Prof. Andrew Haruna, faulted successive Nigerian governments for neglecting the education sector and reducing the value of academics to mere salary figures, stressing that what lecturers truly need is an enabling environment to teach, research, and contribute meaningfully to national development.

Speaking with The PUNCH, Haruna, who has taught in over 10 European universities, lamented that academics in Nigeria were undervalued compared to their peers abroad.

Haruna said, “I have taught in many countries in Europe. If you go through my CV, you will see that I taught in more than 10 different universities in Europe, and I was trained in Europe, and I came back to Nigeria to help. Now, if I were trained in Europe, I would know what I am worth.

“So, if you get just a meagre salary in Nigeria, just because I have decided to come and contribute, it simply shows the kind of leadership we have. Do they really respect the Nigerian citizens? If they respect the Nigerian citizens, do they really respect the Nigerian academia?”

He argued that the problem was not just low pay, but the lack of infrastructure and conducive conditions for intellectual work.

On the international value of academics, he stressed that professors remained globally mobile, unlike many other professions.

He added, “If I earn $4,000 a month and I decide to come to Nigeria and you pay me N400,000, you simply show the kind of value you put on me. Professors, academics, are highly mobile. We are the only category of workers who have a professor in Nigeria, a professor in America, and a professor in Germany. Just like the degree we get in a Nigerian university, the Nigerian student will go to America and do a master’s degree, and go to Japan and do a PhD. So, this is the only job that is international.”

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Education

Read how students can win FG’s ₦365m national laureate prize

Published

2 days ago

August 28, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

The Federal Government has opened the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize, an annual ₦365 million scheme designed to reward and elevate outstanding research from Nigeria’s universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of education.

Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, announced the opening of the prize on Thursday, following a press briefing with the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank National Laureate team.

He said the initiative aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda by repositioning tertiary institutions as centres of research, innovation, enterprise and problem-solving rather than mere certificate-producing centres.

Prize structure

The annual prize fund of ₦365 million is structured as follows:

Undergraduate Star Prize: ₦35 million
Master’s Star Prize: ₦50 million
Doctoral Star Prize: ₦100 million
15 Thematic Excellence Prizes: ₦12 million each, totalling ₦180 million

Across six thematic areas, one national thematic laureate is selected at each of the three academic levels — undergraduate, master’s and doctoral — producing 18 laureates in total.

Three of these receive the Star Prizes, while the remaining 15 receive the thematic awards.

The six thematic areas are Science, Engineering and Technology; Medicine and Health Sciences; Arts and Social Sciences; Agriculture; Law; and Teaching Innovation.

A special Dr Stella Adadevoh Prize, or Excellence Award, for Medicine and Medical Innovation honours the late physician whose actions helped contain Nigeria’s 2014 Ebola outbreak.

It is conferred on the laureate whose work and conduct best embody integrity, national service and protection of the public good.

Who is eligible?

The prize is open to students and researchers in every accredited tertiary institution in Nigeria — federal, state or private.

Undergraduate dissertations or recognised equivalents, master’s theses and doctoral theses, or equivalents from polytechnics, monotechnics, colleges of education and similar institutions, are eligible if they demonstrate strong commercial potential, industrial application or clear developmental impact.

Works must meet research integrity and originality standards.

Every nominated work must first be deposited in the NERD system and issued a valid National Document Number.

An NDN confirms deposit but does not automatically enter a work into the competition.

How students can position themselves to win

Students cannot submit entries directly. Only institutions, through their formally constituted Institution Laureate Selection Committees, can nominate and enter works.

Each institution may submit up to 18 entries: up to six undergraduate, six master’s and six doctoral entries, or their equivalents, drawn from the six thematic areas, generally one per theme at each level.

To maximise their chances, students should:

Produce exceptional work with demonstrable commercial, industrial or developmental value that addresses national challenges.
Ensure the dissertation, project or thesis is fully submitted to NERD and assigned a valid NDN before the institutional selection window closes.
Actively engage their supervisor, co-supervisor, head of department and other academic leaders. Ask them to present their work to the Institution Laureate Selection Committee for independent review.

Institutional selection is the first gateway. High-quality research and proper NERD compliance can improve the prospects of nomination.

How institutions submit entries

Once an institution’s Laureate Selection Committee has chosen its strongest works, authorised members follow the submission process on the National Laureate portal.

Step 1: Log in to the National Laureate Committee portal. This assumes the institution has constituted its Laureate Selection Committee and directed its NERD Focal Officer to enrol and formally designate the appointed members on NERD. Committee members require this designation to access the Laureate portal using their existing NERD credentials.

Step 2: On the Laureate Dashboard, click Manage Institution Entries from the top-right menu.

Step 3: The next page will display the dissertations, projects and theses submitted within the institution, grouped under the relevant academic levels: undergraduate, master’s and doctoral, or their recognised equivalents.

Step 4: Use the filters at the top of the page to search for a specific dissertation, project or thesis.

Step 5: Once the work the committee intends to enter is located, click View to review the submission details carefully and confirm that all information is correct.

Step 6: On the View page, click View Submission Evidence to confirm that all required departmental and institutional attestations have been supplied.

Step 7: Click Open Authoritative Student File to view the exact PDF of the dissertation, project or thesis as originally submitted.

Step 8: If everything is in order, click Back to Previous Page or Back to Dashboard to return to the relevant work.

Step 9: Tick the oath checkbox and read the declaration carefully before proceeding. By ticking the box, the committee is making the prescribed institutional declaration in respect of the entry.

Step 10: Click Submit Entry. This completes the submission process for that entry. The committee may then proceed to review and submit other eligible works.

Deadline for submission

The deadline for institutional entries is August 31, 2026.

What happens after institutional submission?

Entries progress through a three-tier process: Institution Committee, Regional (zonal) Committee, and National Committee.

The National Laureate Committee, chaired by Emeritus Professor Abubakar Sambo, oversees the final evaluation.

The process is designed to be transparent, competitive and merit-driven, with emphasis on academic excellence and impact.

Winners are expected to be honoured at a National Laureate Gala later in the year, previously indicated for November.

Source: punchng.com

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Education

WAEC result crisis worsens as official alleges irregularities, glitches

Published

2 days ago

August 28, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

The crisis surrounding the recently released West African Examinations Council 2026 results for school candidates has deepen following an allegations of glitches and irregularities by an official of the examination body.

The Head of Examinations at the WAEC office covering in Anambra, Olanrewaju Fadehan, made the allegations in a now viral video, claiming that candidates who sat the computer-based version of the examination were particularly affected.

Fadehan alleged that the problems were noticeable around the release of the results, which he said was initially expected to be announced between August 3 and 5, 2026, adding that WAEC had traditionally released results on Mondays.

He said, “Obviously, there was a problem because the press was eagerly waiting on Monday, the scheduled date. There was a need to quickly do some last-minute adjustments. Something was wrong.”

According to him, the alleged last-minute adjustments affected candidates who sat the computer-based examination, particularly in subjects including Mathematics, English and Igbo.

He also expressed concern over reports that some candidates from the South-East performed poorly in Igbo, despite the subject being widely spoken in the region.

Fadehan said schools that invested heavily in computer-based examination facilities were also affected, alleging that some spent over N60m establishing the facilities in anticipation of the transition to CBT.

“The call for a review this year is particularly disturbing, as it is alarming. Schools that subscribed to the CBT innovation of WAEC were badly hit. Some of them spent upwards of N60m and above to set up their CBT facilities,” he alleged.

He further alleged that some candidates were not provided with appropriate calculators during the examination, claiming that the development contributed to poor performance in mathematics and other calculation-based subjects.

Fadehan said he had raised concerns about the alleged irregularities during the examination and subsequently petitioned relevant authorities, including the WAEC Board, the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Examining Bodies and the Minister of Education.

He alleged that rather than addressing his complaints, he was subjected to disciplinary proceedings and subsequently placed on interdiction.

“I call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to investigate the cause of failure of candidates, particularly those who chose the computer-based WAEC,” he said.

He also made allegations of financial impropriety against the management of the examination body, including claims concerning the supply of calculators, students’ identification cards and charges imposed on candidates and other service seekers.

He urged the federal government and other stakeholders to investigate the allegations, stressing that the integrity of the examination system was important to the future of Nigerian students.

When contacted for a reaction to the allegations on Thursday, the WAEC Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina, declined to comment on the matter.

“No comment for now,” she said.

The PUNCH reported on August 18 that the examination body is facing growing scrutiny over the integrity of its released WASSCE results for school candidates, as school administrators and education advocates allege grading anomalies and technical glitches linked to the expanded Computer-Based Testing rollout.

The concerns had followed complaints from school administrators and education advocates who claim that some high-performing students received lower grades than expected, based on their academic records and performance in other standardised assessments.

Source: punchng.com

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Education

FG halts foreign scholarships, redirects funds home

Published

3 days ago

August 27, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

The Federal Government is reviewing its foreign scholarship and bilateral education arrangements as part of efforts to eliminate unnecessary expenditure and redirect public resources towards strengthening Nigerian tertiary institutions, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has said.

Alausa said the government could no longer justify spending scarce public funds to send students abroad to study programmes that are already available in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

The minister disclosed this while explaining the rationale behind the Federal Government’s decision to review its overseas scholarship arrangements, stressing that the policy was driven by the need to build domestic capacity and ensure better value for public expenditure.

He recalled that shortly after assuming office, he was presented with a proposal involving about 100,000 Nigerian students travelling to Morocco to study courses taught in English, including mass communication and journalism.

According to him, the proposal raised serious concerns because the courses were already available in Nigeria, while the students would have had to spend their first year learning French before commencing their programmes.

Alausa said, “Number one, we have all those courses in Nigeria. And yet, number two, they were going to spend the first year learning French before they started the programme.”

He added that the cost of supporting such students abroad could not be justified when Nigeria had developed considerable capacity in its tertiary institutions over the years.

“And number three, in the position of a few million to support this in Nigeria, we support thousands of them,” he said.

The minister said the government therefore concluded that continuing the arrangement in its previous form would amount to an inefficient use of public resources.

“So the Bilateral Education Agreement was not making sense, again, to us in government. It was a way to waste government funds,” Alausa said.

He added, “And this President will not waste any public funds.”

The latest position builds on the Federal Government’s earlier decision to discontinue government-funded BEA scholarships while retaining support for students already enrolled under the previous arrangements.

The Federal Government has clarified that existing beneficiaries of the bilateral scholarship programme would not be abandoned and would continue to receive support until the completion of their studies, while new government-funded awards under the arrangement were discontinued following a review of the programme.

The policy does not amount to a blanket ban on Nigerians receiving scholarships from foreign governments.

Foreign governments willing to sponsor Nigerian students can continue to offer such opportunities, but the Federal Government intends to be more selective about committing Nigerian public funds to overseas education.

Alausa similarly explained that foreign countries willing to continue sponsoring Nigerian students could do so without necessarily requiring financial support from the Nigerian government.

The minister said the circumstances that justified sending large numbers of Nigerian students abroad decades ago had changed considerably.

“When those programmes were set up 20 years ago, they were meant to get students to go to the government colleges where we did not have capacity.

“But in the last 20 years, we’ve built a number of capacities in the tertiary institutions — universities, polytechnics and colleges,” he added.

The scholarship review comes amid broader reforms by the Federal Ministry of Education aimed at repositioning Nigeria’s education system under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

The reforms have focused increasingly on strengthening domestic tertiary institutions, expanding technical and vocational education and training, improving digital education, promoting research and innovation, and making education more responsive to the needs of the economy.

The Federal Government has also intensified efforts to strengthen technical and vocational education and training, with emphasis on modernising curricula, developing industry-relevant skills and improving the capacity of institutions to produce graduates who can contribute directly to economic development.

Alausa has repeatedly argued that education spending must produce measurable outcomes, particularly given the country’s competing development needs and limited public resources.

The push to retain more education spending within Nigeria also reflects the government’s broader objective of strengthening local institutions rather than relying excessively on overseas opportunities.

Alausa said the government’s approach was not simply about withdrawing foreign scholarships but ensuring that public resources were deployed where they would have the greatest impact.

He cited an instance involving scholarship beneficiaries who were expected to study abroad but were instead studying in Nigerian universities, saying such situations further demonstrated the need to review the system.

“So we have to start with Nigerians,” the minister said.

The Federal Government has simultaneously been strengthening domestic student support mechanisms, including scholarships and bursaries for Nigerian students and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which provides financial support to students in tertiary institutions.

Alausa said the government’s broader objective was to create a tertiary education system capable of producing the skills, research and innovations required for national development.

He recently inaugurated the Tertiary Institution National Gallery Prize Committee to recognise outstanding academic research and innovation, particularly research with potential for commercialisation and industrial application.

“We want undergraduate researchers to see a clear pathway from academic research to industrial application, enterprise, innovation, and national development,” he said.

The minister said Nigeria could no longer afford to measure the success of its education system simply by the number of certificates awarded.

“The most successful nations of the 21st century will not necessarily be those endowed with greater natural resources. They will be those that can systematically transform knowledge into solutions, research and intellectual capital into economic and industrial value,” Alausa said.

Source: punchng.com

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