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From Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan
The Nigerian Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) branch, has accused the university management of “deliberate deception and administrative wickedness” over its handling of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) implementation and the recent student protest in Ogbomoso.
In a strongly worded rejoinder released on Friday and signed by the Acting Chairman, Prof. M. A. Olamoyegun, and Acting Secretary, Dr. A. O. Alabi, NAMDA said the management’s recent press statement on the matter was “a defensive public-relations document” filled with “vague promises and empty rhetoric” rather than a genuine effort to resolve the long-standing salary disparity.
The medical academics said their struggle for CONMESS implementation had lasted over a year, noting that virtually all other medical schools across Nigeria both federal and state-owned had long placed their medical lecturers on the approved salary structure.
They recalled that in January 2025, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. R. O. Rom Kalilu, personally assured the union that CONMESS would be implemented without delay. Acting in good faith, NAMDA suspended its strike at the time. However, the association said, eleven months later, nothing had changed; no council approval, no payroll adjustment, and no arrears.
“Our members continue to be paid on the old salary scale against equity, fairness, and national practice,” the statement read. “The management’s so-called ‘Letter of Commitment’ is procedurally hollow, non-binding, and deceitfully packaged to mislead the public.”
NAMDA rejected management’s claim that CONMESS implementation would begin in November 2025 and become fully operational by July 2026, describing it as an “attempt to push medical lecturers into another nine-month period of suffering and cheating.”
“The clause to ‘consider payment of arrears thereafter’ is not a commitment; it is a deliberate evasion of responsibility,” the group stated. “No one considers paying what is legally due; one pays it.”
The academics said the delay amounted to discrimination and violated constitutional and labour laws, including Sections 17(3a & e) and 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Labour Act, and the Trade Union Act.
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NAMDA also faulted management’s attempt to link the students’ protest to the association’s rejection of the offer, insisting that the unrest was a direct result of the university’s failure to honour its promises.
“Students are protesting because Management has failed to honour lawful obligations to their teachers. The protest is a symptom of misgovernance, not union militancy,” the rejoinder noted.
The group said the Vice Chancellor’s actions during a November 6 meeting betrayed trust, claiming that management promised to reconvene talks after a Council visit to the Iseyin campus but instead released “a misleading statement aimed at cheap public blackmail.”
NAMDA maintained that LAUTECH’s medical lecturers perform the same duties: teaching, clinical services, mentoring, and research as their counterparts in other medical schools and therefore deserve equal pay.
“We are not asking for a favour; we are demanding what is lawful and fair,” the statement added. “Medical lecturers are not cowards. We will neither be intimidated by propaganda nor silenced by deceit.”
The association called for immediate implementation of CONMESS using the Oyo State Government’s template already in effect since January 2025, full payment of arrears from January 2025—the date of the Vice Chancellor’s initial promise—and urgent intervention by the Governing Council and Oyo State Government to protect the integrity of medical education in the university.
NAMDA reaffirmed its commitment to medical education and its students but said its industrial action would continue until full implementation and a signed, enforceable directive were achieved.
“Equality delayed is oppression prolonged,” the group concluded. “We seek not privilege, but parity; not favour, but fairness; the wage of our labour and the dignity of our calling.”
The rejoinder follows a press statement issued on November 7, 2025, by the LAUTECH management through the Registrar, Mrs. Olayinka O. Balogun, which announced plans to begin partial implementation of CONMESS from November 2025 and full implementation by July 2026. The university appealed to NAMDA to reconsider its stance in the interest of students and institutional stability.
