> And let no one forget the obscene perks of the national (and state?) legislature…
NO ONE MADE ANY NOISE
I read in the news last week that most companies and banks increased the salaries of their workers by 100%, 75%, 50%, 35% respectively to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal and hyper inflation. Leading on these increments was Guarantee Trust Bank which gave it's junior cadre staff 100% increment and middle level and senior level got 50% and 35% increments respectively.
No trade union fought for it. No strike threats or whatever drama. The employers just knew what is right and did it.
I paid attention to gauge the reaction of the masses and there was silence. No noise.
As it stands now, a fresh graduate employee in GT Bank earns more than an associate professor/reader with PhD, 40 publications and 15 to 20 years of service. Still, it is okay. No noise about it. A security guard with SSCE in GTB earning N60,000 previously just got his salary doubled, now earning N120,000. That's almost the salary of an assistant lecturer with M.SC, 5 publications and years of experience, etc. Still, no noise about it.
In all these, no noise. It is normal to be enslaved in academics in Nigeria. It is normal to earn peanuts. It is normal to die in hunger as an academic, yet with loads of degrees and publications. The society don't expect you to earn more than even a security guard in a gate. NO NOISE ABOUT IT.
From Dr. Ejike Sunday Okoroigwe.