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Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria - Education - Nairaland

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Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by engronovo: 7:51am On Aug 26, 2010
Abuja — The Federal Government yesterday said it was disposed to accepting the proposal to raise the retirement age of professors to 70 years.

Minister of Education, Dr Sam Egwu, said ASUU had demanded 70 years as retirement age for its members, which government had conceded to with a slight amendment that only Professors should retire at that age.



"This is to encourage more people to go into lecturing and aspire to the peak of their careers. This recommendation is under consideration by government," he said.

Government is also considering an upward review of salaries and allowances of academic and other staff members of universities.

Egwu told Senate Commi-ttee on Education, at an interactive session yesterday in Abuja, that to implement the raise in allowances and salaries for universities alone, government would require additional N78.2 billion in budgetary provisions.

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He said, "government had considered and agreed on the review of salaries and allowances of academic and other staff of the Universities. However, this is subject to budgetary provisions, as an additional sum of N78.262, 082,484 would be required for universities alone."Egwu also told the Senate Committee on Education, under the chairmanship of Senator Joy Emodi, that plans are afoot to give university governing councils power to hire and fire vice-chancellors. In response to question on the status of the agreement between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Egwu had said government was at home with the issue of university autonomy. He said, "with the amendment of some Sections of Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act No 11 of 1993, published in the FGN Gazette of July, 2007, the matter had been laid to rest.

However, the implication of this is that there will be more internal members than external on Councils; the appointment of VCs would now stop at Council, which can hire and fire."

On the issue of the dismissed 49 lecturers of University of Ilorin, Egwu said government had resolved to wait for Supreme Court arbitration on the issue, but ASUU expressed desire for an out of court settlement.Monday's commencement of a seven-day warning strike by members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the on going industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and t he huge reduction from the allowances of public officers dominated the pages of Nigerian newspapers last week.

While university authorities have directed students to vacate campuses until the twin crisis is resolved, the Revenue, Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on Thursday announced the cancellation of the 300 per cent severanc e gratuity allowances of the President and the Vice-President with effect from 1 July, 2009.

Writing under the headline " ASUU, SSANU strike cripples varsities as students v acate campuses, the Vanguard reports that because of the ongoing strike by the two unions, essential services on campuses, such as water and electricity supply h a d become erratic.

It said "While the strike by ASUU members is in the second week, that of SSANU began on Monday.

To worsen the situation, there are strong indications that the third union in the sector, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Related Institutions (NASU), which last week ended a warning strike, could any moment from now go on strike too as the union also has series of unresolved grievances with government.

ASUU is on an indefinite strike over alleged refusal of government to sign and implement the agreement reached between the government/ASUU negotiating teams, while SSANU is on a seven-day warning strike, with a strong threat to declare a full-scale total and indefinite industrial should government fail to address its demands for new salary negotiation, 65 years retirement age, the university autonomy and the payment of 2003 to 2005 monetisation arrears.

On the university strike, the DAILY INDEPENDENT reported that the action had dis rupted the planned Post-University Matriculation Examination (UME) examination o f the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, in North Central Nigeria. Th e examination was scheduled to take place 3-4 July.

The paper reported that ASUU members in the institution threatened that under no condition would the examination continue, as their members would not be available to supervise or have anything to do with its conduct.

Writing under the headline "Varsity lecturers' retirement age now 70", with the rider "FG accedes to ASUU's demands", the SUN reported that University lecturers in the country are now to retire at age 70, as the Federal Government has accede d to three key demands of the striking varsity teachers, in a determined effort to end the strike and get ASUU members back to the classroom.

The concession was announced by the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, on Wednesday in Abuja when she briefed state house correspondents on the outcome of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.

She said the strike action by ASUU would soon be resolved as government was doing everything possible to reach a consensus with the union, pointing out that negotiation was continuing on some of the union’s demands as the Federal Government had expressed concern about the issue.

In its headline "Strike demands: ASUU wins 3, one to go", the DAILY TRUST report ed that three of the four major demands by ASUU were accepted by the Federal Executive Council at its meeting in Abuja yesterday, with government saying it was still studying the fourth, very important demand for a wage hike, quoting Professor Akunyili.

``Government has accepted autonomy for the universities, increased funding and a pproved 70 years as the retirement age for lecturers. With regards to ASUU’s first demand, a 109 per cent pay hike for university teachers, that one is being discussed,” Akunyili was quoted by the paper as saying.

The DAILY INDEPENDENT, under the headline, "Global Economic Recession: Yar'Adua, Jonathan lose 300% gratuity", reported that President Umaru Yar'Adua and his Deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, are to lose their gratuity of 300 per cent of basic salary, in part to tame the effect of the global economic crunch on country folk.

Their hardship allowance is also slashed from 50 per cent to 30 per cent.

On Thursday, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) submitted to Yar'Adua details of the slash in his and other pubic office holders ' allowances from 1 July, expected to have "immediate effect on the economy".

The gratuity for both men were also cancelled because they are entitled to pension for life under Section 84 (5) of the Constitution.

The paper quoted RMAFC Chairman, Hamman Tukur, as saying, when he submitted the report to Yar'Adua, that the allowance for each office was considered on its own merit before deciding whether to review it downwards, retain or cancel it altogether; hence, no unilateral reductions.

The report is in four volumes -- the first (allowances for federal executives and judicial officers; the second with state and council executives; three with the federal legislature, and four with state and council legislatures).

"At last, pay cut for public officers begins," was the headline of THIS DAY news papers.

The story said "For the Senators, their constituency allowance has been reduced from 250 per cent of their annual basic salary to 125 per cent and that of members of the House of Representatives reduced from 150 per cent to 75 per cent.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said that the 70 years retirement age for university lecturers should be based on performance and not made automatic.

The union made this known at the National Assembly public hearing on Tertiary Education Trust Fund Bill 2009 organised by the House of Representatives committee on education.



Former ASUU President, Dr Oladipo Fasina who spoke for ASUU said that it is not ideal for every academic to retire at the age of 70 years because it cannot be sustained but instead he suggested that it should apply to only lecturers who have made worthy input into the system.

However, the president of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Mohammed Ali Kabir said that retirement age for Academic staff in the tertiary institution should be 70 years and 65 years for the non-academic staff. 70-Year Retirement Age Shouldn't Be Automatic -ASUU

Also speaking, Mohammed Uwais, president of the Senior Staff Union of College of Education pointed out that senior non-teaching staff are excluded from the government policies stressing that both teaching and non-teaching staff should complement each other and also explaining that the retirement age should be for be both academic staff.

The Executive Secretary, Education Trust Fund, Professor Mahmood Yakubu emphasized that if the fund is allowed to intervene only in the tertiary institutions, the impact will be felt more, adding that each public university will likely get about N250 million each next year.The DAILY TRUST reported under the headline "President, VP lose 300% severance pay. Hardship allowance reduced from 50% to 30%", that the new package means that a President would no longer get N10,544,115 (about US$ 70,000) at the end of his tenure, while a Vice President would loss N9,094,718.

The current annual basic salary of both the President and his vice is N3,514,705.00 (about US4 25,000) and N3, 031,572.50, respectively.

For the hardship allowance, the President would lose annually N702, 942 after the allowance is cut from N1,757,353 to N1,054,412. The Vice President would lose N 605,709 annually.

Lagos - 04/07/2009

Pana
Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by obi123: 12:33pm On Aug 26, 2010
is this really a priority for the federal Government with regards to the state of education in this flipping country?how does this help bring education  to the 21st century  instead of them start from the roots they are starting from the top, just how do they arrive at their so called  initiatives i wonder at times , dunderheads the whole bunch of them , absolute numskulls
Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by poj(m): 12:41pm On Aug 26, 2010
even the non productive and d already intellectually irrelevant professor. make dem pave way for new enrant
Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by titsqueez(m): 12:43pm On Aug 26, 2010
Is this not an attempt to delay or even deny them their pensions
Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by buzugee(m): 2:18pm On Aug 26, 2010
tit_squeez:

Is this not an attempt to delay or even deny them their pensions
they give pension in naija ? shocked
Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by Ossaifamous(m): 2:36pm On Aug 26, 2010
now young graduates would find it hard to get govt jobs.
as long old ones are still there. what a bittersweet plan, bitter for us, sweet for them,

1 Like

Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by bobmatek: 2:42pm On Aug 26, 2010
Old news/story!!!
Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by ikpeyen: 2:50pm On Aug 26, 2010
With the average life expectancy hovering around 60, Good luck if you live long enough to collect. Another smart move to deny you your benefits.Don't we just emulate the West blindly without proper representation?
Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by iice(f): 4:48am On Aug 27, 2010
lmao @ responses
Re: Fg Raises Professors' Retirement Age To 70 In Nigeria by Nobody: 7:26am On Aug 27, 2010
fuwadu students till 70

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