Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori approved new pay for tertiary staff on Tuesday in Asaba, but published accounts of the announcement give no figure for the increase.
For thousands of lecturers and support workers, the size of the raise is the main question, and it has not been answered publicly. Reports of the announcement also say nothing about what the new structure will cost the state or how it will be funded.
The new structure covers academic staff at Delta’s four state-owned universities from August 2026. Non-academic staff and workers at the state’s other tertiary institutions move onto it from September. Oborevwori made the announcement while swearing in the state’s new auditor-general, Emasogbe Matthew Oghene, and inaugurating the governing councils of the University of Delta in Agbor, Dennis Osadebay University in Asaba and Southern Delta University in Ozoro.
The governor tied the pay decision to rapid growth in the sector. He said enrolment at the state universities had risen from about 50,000 in 2023 to more than 100,000 this year, and that the institutions now offer professional courses including medicine, law, nursing and accounting. He also said the government had approved two hostels at each of the state’s nine tertiary institutions, each holding 480 students, which would add about 8,640 beds if all are built.
Oborevwori warned, however, that state money has limits. He said it was unrealistic and unsustainable for a university to depend on government funding alone. Patrick Muoboghare, pro-chancellor of Dennis Osadebay University, called for a higher education endowment fund and urged wealthy Deltans to invest in hostels, staff housing and lecture halls.
The governor also said the universities’ academic calendar had not been disrupted by strikes or student unrest in 17 years.
A labour coalition welcomed the move. Working People United, a grouping of workers, professionals and artisans, called it “a bold, people-centred move” in a statement on Wednesday from its coordinator-general, Williams Eniredonana Akporeha. The group urged employers across Nigeria not to wait for federal wage announcements before improving pay.
It also argued that states and sectors earning more under President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms should spend part of those gains on worker welfare, and said better pay would raise productivity and reduce crime.
