Why there’s no excitement running universities in Nigeria — Vice-chancellor

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) in Enugu State, Charles Igwe, has lamented the “underpayment” of the staff of the university.

Mr Igwe, a professor, spoke during a press briefing at the Enugu Campus of the UNN on Tuesday as part of activities to mark the institution’s 52 convocation ceremony to be held on Friday.

The vice-chancellor said salaries usually received by staff members of the university were not commensurate with the volume of work they do in the university.

“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,” he said.

Mr Igwe stressed 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 vice-chancellor 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),” but regretted the funds do not exist anymore.

He said departments of the university were still expected to maintain their classrooms and laboratories even when the DTLC was no longer being paid.

He added that the introduction of a payment platform, Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, by the federal government has prevented him from hiring staff for some departments, which he said were “running almost without a staff.”

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“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,” said Mr Igwe, whose tenure as UNN vice-chancellor will end in June.

Way out

Mr Igwe said to solve the problem of underpayment and poor funding of universities in Nigeria, 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 said.