ASUP faults CVCNU claim of poly chief lectures earning more than professors

By Gabriel Dike

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) yesterday picked holes in the claim by the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) that polytechnic chief lectures earn more that university professors.

ASUP in a statement signed by the Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi Yalwa and made available to Daily Sun, said it attention was drawn to CVCNU submission to the Federal Government during the meeting of Vice Chancellors, Chairmen of Governing Councils of federal universities and  Minister of Education on Tuesday that salary of chief lecturers in polytechnics are higher than professors.
Yalwa said: “An extract from the submission made by the CVCNU was emphatic in conveying the erroneous impression that chief lecturers in Nigeria’s polytechnics (and colleges of Education) earn more than professors in the nation’s universities.
“The position of the CVCNU was made in order to justify the legitimate demands of our sister union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities for a wage increase.
“While we understand the disposition of the CVCNU to support the aspirations of ASUU, putting out fallacious statements as it affects the emoluments of other workers in the other tiers of tertiary education in the country will only undermine same aspiration,
He said apart from the falsehood, it is improper for the CVCNU to have made such statement at a time when the union is also renegotiating emoluments for members and that it has the potentials of creating the wrong impression about the emoluments of workers in polytechnics and colleges of education, thereby undermining the ongoing renegotiation process between the federal and polytechnics.
Yalwa said without doubt, the CVCNU has access to the salary structures of the different cadres of staff across the tertiary education landscape and therefore has no basis to indulge in needless extrapolation.
According to him, the agitation for wage review in the university system can indeed proceed creditably without such fallacious reference by parties as such can only breed needless rivalry in the sector.
“We affirm our position that the unions and government should remain faithful to collective bargaining principles in arriving at any wage review in the current dispensation in line with best practices in industrial relations,” the stated.