Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, has been approached by lecturers at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, telling him to pay their outstanding salary arrears for the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 academic sessions, respectively.
The lecturers said that while some of them were being owed 23 months’ salaries, others were still expecting their eight months’ salaries to be paid.
Speaking with journalists in Port Harcourt on Monday, February 26, 2018, Sonny Amadi, the Coordinator of the contract lecturers, expressed gratitude to the governor for the three-and-half month arrears paid to them in 2017, adding that the gesture helped significantly to relieve their pain.
Recalling that it was the standard practice in universities to engage the services of qualified lecturers for academic and administrative mentorship, Amadi said the inflow of experiences and the quality of adjunct and visiting professors from other institutions would add value to the recipient institutions.
He pointed out that the engagement of adjunct lecturers was helping to alleviate the problem of shortage of qualified personnel in the university.
“We draw attention to the painful plight of the above categories of staff of Rivers State University, who are currently burdened with outstanding arrears of salaries in 2015/2016 and 2016/2017, ranging from eight months to 23 months.
“This disclosure is coming on the heels of a series of earlier appeals to the authorities to address the unfortunate situation and bring the travail of the affected staff to an end. It is on record that sometime in 2017, about three and half months of the arrears were duly paid by government to relieve the prolonged.
“We are very appreciative of the delightful welcome development. Suffice it, however, that the gesture raised the hope that the balance would be paid sooner than later from the same source.
“We recall that it is a standard practice in the university system to engage the services of qualified staff of the categories under discussion, for academic, technical and administrative/mentorship purposes,” Amadi stated.
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