Atiba University, a privately-owned institution in Oyo State, is under fire as over 100 adjunct lecturers accuse the management of owing salaries spanning three academic semesters.
According to a statement shared with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), the affected staff claim to have worked for more than one and a half years without receiving full payment for their services.
Oyo-based University Faces Wage Crisis
The university reportedly runs its academic workforce largely on adjunct staff, many of whom say they operate without formal employment contracts. Instead, they enter the system through informal arrangements, often added to WhatsApp groups by the university registrar, who is said to be the founder's daughter, and begin teaching based on verbal agreements.
Typically, the lecturers are expected to receive lump-sum payments at the end of each semester, based on the number of courses handled and classroom hours. However, lecturers told newsmen that they had only been paid once in the past three semesters, including the 2023/2024 Summer School and both semesters of the 2024/2025 academic year.
Salaries range from about ₦165,000 to ₦200,000 per semester for adjunct lecturers and PhD holders, depending on their teaching load. Despite this arrangement, the university has allegedly failed to make consistent payments.
Management Responds with Silence
After several complaints, the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Sunday Okeniyi, acknowledged the situation in a message sent to staff, apologizing and appealing for patience. However, his message offered no timeline for payment or clear resolution, and some lecturers claimed he lacks the authority to enforce salary disbursements.
“The biggest issue is that even the VC does not have a say in how workers are paid. It’s at the discretion of the founder,” one affected lecturer said.
James Ojebode, the institution’s founder, was less conciliatory. Speaking to newsmen, he downplayed the lecturers’ grievances and insisted the university owed salaries for only one semester. When reminded that staff had worked without pay across multiple sessions, Ojebode reportedly said, “They should go and get another job.”
He further alleged that some lecturers did not meet academic obligations such as class attendance and exam preparation. “They collect scripts after exams and disappear,” he claimed. “We gave them deadlines for submitting their question papers, but they didn’t meet them. Some of them didn’t come to class for eight weeks.”
Ojebode said salary payments are now tied to attendance verification, and that the school intends to downsize its adjunct workforce.
Informal Hiring, Zero Contracts
The lecturers say they were brought on board through informal means, sometimes via headhunting. There were no offer letters or contracts to bind the university to any legal employment terms, a practice that violates basic labour rights and makes redress difficult.
Despite the lack of documentation, lecturers have reportedly continued to fulfil academic obligations, including teaching, invigilating, and grading, with little or no compensation.
Institutional Disregard, Broader Implications
The situation at Atiba University highlights deeper systemic issues in Nigeria’s private education sector, where informal employment practices often leave academic workers vulnerable. The lecturers’ plight not only raises questions about regulatory oversight but also points to the wider challenges faced by adjunct staff in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
As the university attempts to deflect blame and lecturers remain unpaid, pressure is mounting for intervention, whether by educational authorities, labour regulators, or civil society, to enforce accountability and uphold staff welfare in private institutions.
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