IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL POLICY (JHSP )

E-ISSN 2545-5729
P-ISSN 2695 2416
VOL. 11 NO. 2 2025
DOI: 10.56201/jhsp.vol.11.no2.2025.pg112.121

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The Politics of Salary Increase for Labour and Cost of Living in Nigeria: A Case of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Onu Sebastine Chigozie, PhD

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Abstract

There is no denying the fact that ASUU and the government of Nigeria are often locked in a battle of salaries renegotiation in the face of steady increase in the cost of living in the country. This has given rise to scholarly investigations on topical issues, such as: economic implications of ASUU strikes; the impact of salary stagnation on university lecturers; poor funding of education in Nigeria; ASUU reoccurring strikes, and lecturers-political office holders’ salary comparison, yet there is limited research on the economic realities of salary increment for labour, especially lecturers and the cost of living in the face of Nigerian politics. To bridge the gap, this study looked into the politics of salary increase for labour and cost of living in Nigeria with the academic staff union of universities (ASUU) in focus. One research question was provided answer to in the study. A qualitative method with descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The 6 federal universities were drawn through the simple random sampling technique while 1,190 lecturers were adopted for the study based on convenience non- randomized sampling technique. The digital-oriented instrument for data collection was the researcher’s self-developed structured instrument, ‘Salary Increase for Academic Staff Union of Universities and Cost of Living Scale (SIASUUCLS)’. The instrument was validated by 2 lecturers while the Cronbach alpha technique was adopted to test for the instrument’s reliability, and this yielded 0.75 as the reliability coefficient. SIASUUCLS was administered on relevant WhatsApp platforms of lecturers of the sampled universities. The analysis of data was done through weighted mean. Findings revealed that the reasons for which increment in salaries for labour have failed to meet up with the cost of living in Nigeria include but are not limited to: political interference, depreciation of naira value, and persistent inflation

keywords:

Salary Increment, Labour, Cost of Living, ASUU, Politics.

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