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Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has called on the Federal Government to open-up recruitment of academic staff in the federal universities in order to safe overworked lecturers’ from untimely death.

Making this call through a statement released on Sunday in Ibadan, the Chairman, UI Chapter of the Union, Dr Deji Omole stated that Nigeria Universities are short of not less than 40,000 lecturers.

Omole noted that poor working environment, job overload and non-approval of leaves  when due as a result of inadequate man power have resulted to untimely death of lecturers  across the nation’s universities in 2018.

The ASUU boss noted that due to work-related stress and the bad economic fortunes, lecturers hardly have time to attend to their health, a situation which, according to the body, is creating health complications which ultimately leads to incapacitation and sometimes death.

Omole further noted that the “federal government is not only determined to kill the lecturers with stress, but also determined to kill university of Ibadan in particular.  This is being done by deliberately refusing to payroll newly recruited lecturers to replace our dead or retired colleagues even when due processes were followed in the recruitment procedures”.

Omole further called for comprehensive medical check-up by various institutions to ascertain the health conditions of their staff, noting that in the struggle for survival, many lecturers who think they are well may have death threatening health conditions.

ASUU noted that the health of her members are fast depreciating due to work overload occasioned by the failure of the federal government to employ more academics to cope with the number of students admitted.

He said that while academic staff continue to work in the most dehumanised conditions, the federal government has refused to pay the earned academic allowances from 2011 to date.