Abia State University suspends lecturer for Facebook post on pay

The management of Abia State University (ABSU) has suspended a lecturer, Prof Nnamdi Nwaeze, from the Economics Department in the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences.

The spokesman for ABSU, Chijioke Nwogu, announced the lecturer’s suspension in a statement on Thursday.

Reports say Nwaeze was suspended on Wednesday due to his Facebook post where he claimed that professors at ABSU earn less than N400,000 per month.

His post was about the recent strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at ABSU. He mentioned that he knew why the strike happened but decided not to speak up to avoid being called an “enemy of the state” or facing punishment for making a “political statement.”

Nwaeze said that lecturers at ABSU receive the lowest pay and are the least paid among Nigerian universities. He added that the university staff are still earning under the 2009 ASUU/FG salary structure instead of the 2024 structure that was not applied at ABSU.

He also stated that professors at ABSU earn less than ₦400,000 monthly while commercial tricyclists can earn over ₦450,000 each month. “Are you aware that professors in all the federal and most state universities now earn between N1.3m to N1.4m as against what is obtainable in ABSU?” he asked.

He continued, “In this same Abia State, a local government councillor who may not have an ordinary WAEC level certificate allegedly earns about N600,000 monthly. A House of Assembly member earns about ₦8 million net salary in Abia State. Most appointees of this government can pay the salary of a professor and still have enough to take care of their families and personal needs.”

In the statement on Thursday, Nwogu, who is also the deputy registrar of the university, said the social media post “is harmful to the interests of the university and disrespectful to the visitors of the university.”

Governor Alex Otti of Abia State is the visitor to the university. Nwogu said that the university management has set up an investigative panel to look into the matter. “The suspension takes immediate effect pending the outcome of the investigation by the panel,” he said.