Clinical lecturers, under the aegis of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) in Kwara State have threatened to withdraw from teaching services at the institution.

The lecturers issued the threat via a communique jointly signed by the Chairman of the Association, Prof. Olatunde Ibrahim, and the Secretary, Dr Nurudeen Abdulraheem, on Tuesday, October 8, 2024.

The association said its position was a result of the non-approval of the payment of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) by UNILORIN management.

The MDCAN members stated that a three-week ultimatum, starting from Monday, October 7, has been issued to UNILORIN management within which to fully implement CONMESS for all clinical lecturers with arrears from 2018.

The lecturers said: “If our members are not paid with CONMESS after the expiration of the three-week ultimatum, all clinical lecturers will withdraw from all clinical academic activities.

“This includes class teaching, practicals, bedside teaching, conducting examinations, accreditation exercises, meetings, and any other activity in the university.”

The lecturers recalled that several meetings were held with UNILORIN Vice-Chancellor with assurances given, including preparing May 2024 salaries with CONMESS, but the payment was not approved by the management.

They said only UNILORIN, among all federal universities in the entire Northern region, was not paying its lecturers with CONMESS.

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The association added: “At present, all clinical lecturers in all Federal Government-owned conventional universities with Medical Schools are paid salaries using the CONMESS, with the exception of University of llorin and universities in the South-West of the country.

“The newly-employed clinical lecturers in University of Ilorin are rightly placed on CONMESS though, making them receive far more money than their seniors and even heads of their departments.

“But this is because their seniors were wrongly placed on a different salary scale.”

The association stated that all South-East and South-South federal universities were also paying their clinical lecturers with CONMESS.

The clinical lecturers however stated that they would appreciate the efforts of the Vice-Chancellor and his management team at preventing the disruption of clinical academic activities in the college.

They noted: “This will be through a timely resolution of this issue, which is purely a local one.

“We strongly believe that a resolution of the issue can come before the expiration of our ultimatum because what we want is CONMESS implementation for all clinical lecturers and not a strike.”

The UNILORIN management has yet to speak on the development as of press time.

The Star