By Tony Edike

Awka— University lecturers yesterday staged a rally in Awka, Anambra State, to protest the non-implementation of the new salary scheme for state-owned universities by governors in the South-East zone.

The lecturers, numbering more than 100 and dressed in academic gowns, carried placards which read: “We protest against poor salary” and “South-East governors have the money to pay their lecturers”.
Others were: “We say no to brain drain from South-East universities,” “South-East lecturers are not different from other lecturers in Nigeria” and “Our governor’s security vote is about N250 million monthly, while Anambra State University gets N50 million.”

Dr Jaja Nwanegbo, the ASUU Chairman, Anambra State University, ANSU, branch, said the lecturers were not ready to compromise on better working conditions.

“There is nothing to negotiate; you do not negotiate a benchmark which has already been established,” he said.

The ASUU chairman explained that what the lecturers in the zone were asking for had been settled between the Federal Government and the union long ago.

“What we are expecting the governments in the zone to do is to meet the minimum requirements of that benchmark,” he said.

Nwanegbo said there was no point running universities that could not produce professional graduates, adding that “ANSU requires about N95 million monthly as against the N50 million currently used to run the institution.”

He noted that in the past three years, ANSU had not employed any lecturer above the rank of assistant lecturer and “most of them leave soon after acquiring higher degrees.”

The chairman said an institution such as the Enugu State University had not produced doctors though the university had been running a medical school for 13 years “because the school lacks the needed personnel”.

The lecturers left for Enugu where a larger rally of lecturers from federal and state universities from the entire South-East would hold.

Reacting, Mr Mike Udah, the Chief Press Secretary to the Anambra governor, said Governor Peter Obi, had set up a committee to produce a report within a month on the financial implications of meeting the striking lecturers’ demands.

Nwanegbo, however, argued that the lecturers could not wait for one month before their demands were met.
Udah described Obi as the most education-friendly governor, saying efforts would be intensified to bring the strike to an end.