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From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Branch, has called for an urgent review of staff salaries and implementation of outstanding welfare benefits.
Speaking at the 2025 ASUU Day celebration held at the Governor Peter Mbah Auditorium, Agbani, Acting Chairperson, Andrew Apeh, said the union remains committed to driving national development through quality teaching and research.
“As academic staff, we must continue to strive for excellence. Our welfare is our fundamental rights, and it’s time we demand it be addressed without politicisation,” he said.
Apeh lamented that ESUT lecturers earn less than their counterparts in other universities.
“It pains greatly to see our counterparts receiving double our salary for almost a year now… here in ESUT, we are battling with survival because of our paltry salary,” he said, adding that the long-pending Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) since 2008 must be mainstreamed.
Guest speaker and ASUU-NSUK Chairperson, Zubairu Abdulmumini Loko, described Nigerian academics as “living between intellectual excellence and national frustration.”
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“We teach like philosophers but are paid like apprentices,” he said, stressing that empowerment must include better salaries, functional research grants, improved infrastructure and protection from political interference.
On academics’ wellness, Loko noted: “Even lions rest. You cannot lead a revolution with blood pressure higher than school fees.”
Earlier, National Resource Person, Comrade Ofukwu Raphael Agbo, criticised university professors for becoming “docile” in the face of injustice, warning that “ASUU remains the last moral firewall preventing the collapse of Nigerian universities.”
The event included medical screening, panel discussions and recognition of retired, deceased and newly promoted members. Nineteen professors were promoted in 2023 and 15 in 2024.
ASUU-ESUT disclosed that 27 members are yet to receive retirement benefits, while 16 deceased members remain unpaid their death benefits.
