Lecturers at the University of Bahr el Ghazal in Western Bahr el Ghazal state have said the living conditions of their families are worsening because the government has not paid their salaries for close to a year.
Last Monday, support and academic staff at the university went on strike to demand 11 months of unpaid salaries from the National Ministry of Finance and the National Ministry of Higher Education.
Africana Allafi, a lecturer at the College of Economics, told Radio Tamazuj that since the National Ministry of Finance did not clear their 11 months’ salary arrears, it has been difficult to feed their families and pay school fees for the children.
“We could not even support ourselves, our families, and our children at school. Things are very hard for us and commodity prices in the market just keep going up,” he lamented. “It has affected us greatly and the lack of salaries means we cannot manage to help our family members when they are sick or to pay the school fee for your children if they are sent back home from school.”
“We have currently suspended lectures because we are too weak to stand for two to three hours and we do not even go to the offices,” Allafi added.
He appealed to the government to pay their salary arrears.
“We cannot bear this situation because we have reached a point where our condition is very bad. Imagine 11 months without being paid, it is not easy,” he stated. “My message is that they have to rescue us and we will call off the strike and resume work. People are dying now, including the lectures.”
He referred to the recent death of a registrar who died because of a lack of proper medication at the university.
Another lecturer from the same college, Bol Maker, said their condition is no longer tolerable and many have resorted to selling family assets to survive.
“Our condition is very bad and most of us are depending on selling family assets to cope with life while others are depending on causal jobs to survive,” he explained. “Within this period, some of us sold their belongings, some sold their cars and motorbikes and others sold their valuable assets like houses.”
According to Maker, the institution has lost some important staff because they were not able to pay for medication.
“We are still on the strike, and our call now is that until these 11 months’ salary arrears are cleared, we have reached a point where we cannot tolerate it because there is a limit to everybody,” he stated. “The only thing is either we are given a solution to this problem or we quit the job and go to the village because, in the village, a professor is not known, one will stay until the situation is addressed.”
Reacting to the lecturers’ situation, Western Bahr el Ghazal state civil society activist and the state coordinator of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Stephen Robo Musa, urged the government to clear the lecturer’s salary arrears to allow them to resume work.
“It is very important that there should be a positive response to the lecturers at the University of Bahr el Ghazal. As civil society in the state, we are closely monitoring this situation. We feel like the government should positively respond to them because demanding the payment is their right,” he said. “In the end, these people are contributing to the country because they are currently teaching at public universities that will produce future leaders.”
“If you did not fulfill the needs of a teacher, they cannot deliver good quality education and a conducive learning environment to produce a good quality of leaders,” Robo added.
He urged organizations that work in partnership with the government to support government schools financially.