The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, in Enugu State, Professor Charles Igwe, has lamented the “underpayment” of staff of the University.
The professor made the disclosure while speaking during a press briefing at the Enugu Campus of the UNN on Tuesday. The event was part of activities to mark the institution’s 52nd Convocation ceremony to be held on Friday, May 10.
According to the Vice-Chancellor, salaries usually received by staff members of the university were not commensurate with the volume of work they do.
He said, “If I tell you what I, the Vice-Chancellor, earn and these professors who are staying here now earn, you will start weeping. What they earn does not equate to what they do. And they’re still expected to perform like every other professional staff.
“The average salary of our professors, before the 35 per cent salary increase, was about N400,000 a month. That’s for the highest professors, older people like those who have served for up to 10 years as professors.”
The VC stated that apart from himself and other professors, academic and non-academic staff of the university were also being underpaid.
“I pity all of you, the Deans (of faculties), Directors and Heads of Departments. It is not only the Vice-Chancellor (that’s being underpaid),” he said.
The Prof said while serving as the Head of a department of the university between 2005 and 2008, he was receiving additional funds called ‘“Direct Teaching and Laboratory Cost (DTLC).” He, however, regretted that the funds does not exist anymore.
Igwe lamented that notwithstanding all these, the departments of the university were still expected to maintain their classrooms and laboratories. Even when the DTLC was no longer being paid.
The VC bemoaned the introduction of a payment platform, Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System, IPPIS, by the Federal Government. He pointed that the system has prevented him from hiring staff for some departments. These, he said, were departments “running almost without a staff.”
“Under the last five years, no Federal University Vice-Chancellor will tell you that he wants to return to the job again. Even if you threaten to crucify him or even if you’re pointing a pistol behind him,” Igwe said.
Prof Igwe, whose tenure as UNN Vice-Chancellor will end in June, 2023, however, proffered solution to the underpayment.
He said the Federal Government should allow universities in Nigeria to be autonomous.
“The university is supposed to be autonomous. I am leaving. I am not talking about myself,” the vice-chancellor expressed worries.
source: Premium Times
