– Say: Counterparts Elsewhere Earn Higher
Tension is gradually brewing at the Imo State University (IMSU) Owerri following the lamentation of salary disparity and stagnation by the lecturers who are not happy that their colleagues and counterparts in other universities earn higher than them despite the fact that they are more qualified and have put in more years than most of them.
Some of the affected lecturers who do not want their names in print told this reporter that under normal circumstances a Lecturer 1 should earn between #180,000-#200,000 monthly while a Senior Lecturer should earn between #250,000-#300,000 monthly.
“A Professor should earn about #450,000, but at the Imo State university, a person who was employed as Lecturer 2, was placed on a salary of #145,000 monthly.. Some of them who rose from Lecturer 2 to Lecturer 1 instead of having their salary reviewed, are still being paid the same #145,000 they earned monthly when they were serving as Lecturer 2 without any variation.
“In the same vein, some of them who were promoted from Lecturer 2 to Lecturer 1 and later to Senior Lecturer positions are still being paid the same #145,000 they earned as Lecturer II, even after putting in between 10 and 15 years in service”, they lamented.
It was also gathered that Associate Professors who should not earn anything less than #350,000 monthly are still being paid the sum of #180,000 monthly they earned as Lecturer 1 several years ago.
“It is also an unpleasant irony that some Associate Professors who have been confirmed as Professors are still being paid the same amount they received as salary when they were Senior Lecturers.
This, they said, is responsible for the high rate of anti-social practices including sorting and examination malpractices in the university, because some of the lecturers who compromise see it as the only way they can make ends meet.
Responding to a question, they said “those who criticize IMSU lecturers for aiding and abetting sorting should have a rethink because it is not easy for a frustrated lecturer who earns #145,000 monthly to foot his bills and adequately take care of his family without cutting corners because of the pressure occassioned by bad governance and mal administation”.
They accused the Governor of Imo state,Senator Hope Uzodinma of withholding and tampering with their money, hence the prevailing inexplicable disparity and attendant stagnation unlike their counterparts in other universities.
“That is why we are embarking on strike. We have lost confidence in the leadership of the IMSU chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who from all indications seem to have compromised. If they have not compromised why are they keeping quiet and doing absolutely nothing to rectify this humiliating anomaly for which many brilliant scholars who have better or competitive options have left the university resulting in the lack of adequate manpower”.
