Nigeria TV Info

Imo University Professors Now Earn More Than Federal Varsity Colleagues, But Lawmakers Still Pocket Far Higher Salaries

While there are three registered academic staff unions in the Nigerian university system—the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Congress of University Academics (CONUA), and the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN)—they all maintain that their take-home pay remains grossly inadequate.

Last week, Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, announced a new minimum wage of ₦104,000 for the least paid government employee in the state. Lecturers in state-owned universities are also beneficiaries of the wage adjustment.

With the new structure, professors in Imo State-owned universities now receive about ₦812,000 monthly, making them the highest-paid university professors in the country. In contrast, their counterparts in federal universities currently earn ₦633,333 per month.

Despite this adjustment, the disparity between academic staff and Nigeria’s elected public office holders remains glaring. While the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) officially pegs senators’ salaries at around ₦1 million per month, reports suggest that each senator actually takes home up to ₦21 million monthly—a figure far exceeding the earnings of university professors responsible for educating and training the nation’s future leaders.

This contrast has fueled fresh debate on wage fairness in Nigeria, with many describing the huge gap as “absurd and unjustifiable.”