The Nimi Briggs renegotiation committee has recommended a monthly salary of N2 million for professors in the Nigerian public university system. This is, however, subject to the government’s acceptance.
BusinessDay learnt that professors within the university system currently earn an average of N462,000 per month. Stakeholders in the education sector believe this is not enough incentive to draw the best from the professors.
The Federal Government on March 7 inaugurated the renegotiation committee headed by Nimi Briggs as an avenue to resolving the impasse between it and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
According to an insider report, the committee also recommended diverse yearly allowances for professors. The allowances are for postgraduate supervision, field trip, responsibility and hazard, examination/timekeeper, and teaching practice/industrial supervision, among others.
The details are contained in a draft proposal of the renegotiated 2009 agreement submitted to the presidential committee on salaries and wages by Nimi Briggs, chairman of the renegotiation committee.
“All the documents have been submitted to Adamu Adamu, the minister of education,” Briggs said.
Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of ASUU refused to confirm the recommendation on the grounds that it has not been signed.
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“Quoting figures in a document that has not been signed is against the tenets of the collective bargaining agreement.
“Anybody who gave out those figures is breaching all the rules about collective bargaining. Until the draft agreement is signed, we cannot release the figures.
“If the government has a problem with the figures, they should come back to us. You don’t blackmail people during negotiation. You don’t go to the public to churn out fake figures during negotiation.
“If you have a problem with what your committee negotiated, you come back to the table and renegotiate it. And that is why the committee went back to the government to say give us permission to sign or raise issues if you have.
“If the committee has finished its work and submitted its report to the government, why are they coming with blackmail? It is against all tenets of negotiations,” he stated.
Recall that Chris Ngige, the minister of labour and employment had on July 13 accused the committee of excluding the relevant advisory government arms like the ministry of finance, education, labour, and employment among others from the sittings of the committee.
That, he said, means the committee’s sittings was a non-inclusive and one-sided proposal, recommending sky-high, impracticable figures in salaries and allowances that are beyond the capacity of the Federal government.
