For months, Nigerian lecturers and other federal tertiary institution workers have endured a disturbing pattern of salary delays and financial uncertainty. While other federal government workers have received their salaries, tertiary education workers remain unpaid—not due to lack of funds, but because of the non-funding of the GIFMIS payment platform, the new system managing their salaries. This administrative recklessness has become a sustained policy of deliberate hardship, punishing university lecturers for daring to fight for their rights.
Even more frustrating is the deafening silence from both the government and the unions, leaving workers in limbo. It is a tragic irony that a government whose leader once declared, “Let the poor breathe,” is now the primary nightmare of lecturers and tertiary education staff. This pattern of financial manipulation and impoverishment must end, and it must end now.
A System Designed to Punish Lecturers
The migration of university workers from IPPIS to GIFMIS (or whatever name the latest payment system bears) has brought nothing but chaos. Since this transition, salary payments have been inconsistent, delayed, and in some cases, outrightly ignored. This is not an accident—it is a calculated strategy to make lecturers perpetually financially unstable, unable to plan their lives, and constantly dependent on the whims of government decision-makers.
At the end of the month, lecturers, like all other Nigerians, have financial obligations—bills to pay, loans to service, and families to cater for. But with these erratic and delayed salaries, even their creditworthiness is destroyed. What kind of government deliberately ensures that its educators are too financially incapacitated to even access credit facilities? The implication is clear: this is a targeted policy of economic suffocation aimed at breaking the spirit of tertiary education workers.
A Union in Fear, A Membership in Silence
Perhaps even more troubling is the silence of our own unions and members. The fear of being blacklisted, victimized, or having salaries stopped altogether has made many lecturers afraid to speak up. But the real question is: should we continue to remain silent while suffering?
For those who argue that the union should remain in endless “dialogue” for fear of salary stoppage, how has that worked out so far? How much better is our condition today with these staggered payments? We are already financially strangled—barely surviving from month to month. The idea that silence and compliance will lead to better treatment has been proven false.
An Election Strategy of Economic Manipulation
There is an even darker political strategy at play here. By keeping tertiary institution workers poor and desperate, the government ensures that when elections come, these same workers will be forced to take up election duties just to survive. Suddenly, when it is time for elections, funds will flow, and electoral commissions will pay even more than lecturers’ legitimate earnings for temporary election work.
This is economic slavery—a government deliberately impoverishing its workforce to make them cheap tools for election manipulation. If we had any collective resolve, we would refuse to participate in election duties entirely, forcing the government to respect and properly compensate its educators. But how do we stop colleagues from running toward the only casual job that pays them more than their official salaries?
Enough Is Enough! The Disregard for Educators Must End
The continuous mistreatment of university lecturers and other tertiary institution workers cannot continue unchecked. There is only so much that can be tolerated before this crisis escalates into mass resistance.
The government must:
1. Immediately fund the GIFMIS payment platform to ensure that tertiary institution workers are paid at the same time as other federal workers.
2. Stop weaponizing salary delays as a tool of control and punishment against lecturers.
3. Respect the dignity of educators by ensuring prompt and consistent salary payments, rather than treating them like disposable assets.
4. Stop using financial hardship as a political tool to manipulate university workers into electoral servitude.
At the same time, the union must break its silence and take a firm stance against this deliberate oppression. Members must also speak out—individually and collectively—to expose and resist this systemic financial strangulation.
We have never asked for anything more than our rights, and we will continue to demand what is rightfully ours—no matter what. Enough is enough. #PBAT
