“My Salary Insulted Me”: UniPort Lecturer Decries Poor Pay as ASUU Begins Two-Week Strike

A University of Port Harcourt lecturer, Dr. Mazi Eze, has sparked public outrage after sharing a viral post detailing his frustration over Nigeria’s poor academic remuneration, revealing that after over a decade of service and earning a PhD, his monthly take-home pay remains ₦191,000.

In the post, originally published on January 25, 2024, and reshared on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, the EnglishTeacher, narrated how his bank declined his request for a ₦5 million loan, citing his salary as insufficient to support such credit.

According to him, his account officer at First Bank, Choba, informed him that based on his earnings, he could only qualify for a little over ₦1 million, repayable within three years.

“I went home sad, angry, and depressed,” Dr. Eze wrote. “I’ve been a lecturer for more than 10 years in UniPort, a federal university, with a PhD, and my salary is ₦191,000.”

He lamented that colleagues in Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Bori Polytechnic, and Rivers State University earn between ₦230,000 and ₦250,000, noting that even newly appointed professors in some federal universities receive between ₦380,000 and ₦440,000 monthly.

Dr. Eze described the pay disparity and the stagnation of university salaries as “insulting,” particularly in light of Nigeria’s current economic hardship.

“At UniPort, a federal university, it’s ₦191,000 monthly! In the next six to eight years, by God’s grace and diligence, I’ll become a professor — and my salary will be a miserable ₦440,000,” he lamented.

The lecturer’s renewed outcry comes amid the two-week warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), over unresolved issues with the Federal Government, including poor funding, welfare concerns, and decayed infrastructure in public universities.

His post has since reignited debate over the deteriorating welfare of Nigerian lecturers and the brain drain threatening the nation’s education sector.