NIGERIA: Critical shortfall in academic numbers

Nigerian universities are facing a staffing crisis as more than 400 professors reach the retirement age of 65 years. To prevent an unprecedented mass exodus, Nigeria’s Head of State Musa Yar’Adua set up a committee to advise the government on ways of extending the retirement age and also substantially increasing academic salaries.

There is an uneasy calm in universities with regard to the impending loss of staff. About 45% of university teachers of professorial rank will be leaving the system within the next couple of months.

“These professors nearing 65 represent the cream of the system,” declared Professor Augustus Olatunji Vidal, an ethno-musicologist and former dean of the faculty of arts at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Vidal himself is one of those facing retirement and he lamented:

“Most of them have international links and they used them to attract both funds and scholars from abroad. They assisted in stamping international recognition on graduates from Nigerian universities and they also took part in various researches that are used by Nigerian and foreign organisations and industries. Now these scholars are leaving the system because of so-called age limit.”

The massive haemorrhage is coming at a time when more universities, private and public, have opened to cater for the increasing number of young secondary school leavers struggling to gain access to limited spaces in universities.

According to recent statistics published by the Joint Examination and Matriculation Board, the accredited agency in charge of competitive entry examinations for the country’s universities, more than one million school-leavers, armed with the equivalent of the General Education Certificate ‘O’ levels, sit annually for its qualifying tests. But little more than one in 10 of those who obtain the 50% pass mark are offered admission.

“Who would teach these fresh and old intakes if 45% of the professors quit the system?” asked Elias Wahab, secretary of the academic union’s branch at Lagos State University. “The departure of these brilliant minds will lead to further brain drain.

“Most of them may move to other parts of the world where their services are required and appreciated. The lecturer-student ratio may further dwindle and postgraduate studies will be adversely affected – and some core courses may be scrapped.”

To address the impending crisis, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, respectively President and Vice-President, set up a committee to find pragmatic solutions. Both the President, a chemistry lecturer and the Vice-President, a zoology lecturer, were preparing to go back to their respective universities to take up teaching appointments before they were called upon by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to contest last April’s presidential elections.

“We are optimistic that both the President and the Vice-President, who are our former colleagues, will personally intervene to prevent the departure of these senior academics,” declared Chukwu Eze, a lecturer at University of Port Harcourt.

The committee has come up with some interesting proposals. First, the retirement age should be moved from 65 years to 70 years. Second, each professor should earn about $4,000 monthly – instead of the current $1,800 – and third, university teachers should be on a different and attractive pension and gratuity scale.

These proposed enhanced packages could be implemented because of the unprecedented revenues from the sale of Nigeria’s crude oil on international markets.

“If the President and the Vice-President could muster the political will to implement these proposals, then a vast majority of the professors may not quit the university system,” said Malik Hassan, a lecturer at the University of Maiduguri.