ASABA -Professors in the Ivory Tower have continued to bare their minds over Federal Government’s decision to peg their retirement age at 70 years and that of other lecturers and non-academic staff at 65.
Reports say that some professors at the Delta State University, Abraka, expressed their feelings on the development in a telephone interview from Asaba on Wednesday.
Prof. Patrick Muobaghare, former ASUU Chairman at the institution, told newsmen that he believed the decision was ill-conceived.
He said it was a prescription of death for professors in active service, arguing that at 70, an individual had little contribution to make “even to his immediate community”.
Muobaghare, however, admitted that the government’s decision was in consonance with an agreement it reached with ASUU on the issue but faulted it on grounds of its workability.
He said that given the time and resources taken to train a professor, it was expected that they should return “quality time to the system and not in the twilight of their careers’’.
He likened the policy to approving a driving licence for a 65-year-old person and beyond and asked “at what speed will such an old driver be expected to drive?”
In his reaction, Prof. Andrew Owhona, said that the decision would amount to enslavement of the lecturers.
He noted that at 70 a worker should be resting in retirement “or better still, visiting children and playing with grand children”.
“If they want lecturers who will be going to the classrooms with the aid of walking sticks, they can go ahead with the policy.
“For me, I will not wait to be that inconvenienced.”
According to Prof. Chinedu Mordi, Dean, Faculty of Education, unless there will be a legal instrument to back it, the decision is not biding on any lecturer.
In line with the agreement reached with ASUU after a four month’s strike in 2009, the Federal Government recently approved 70 years as the retirement for Nigerian professors.
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