The immediate past Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) in charge of Administration, Prof. Ezekiel Olusola Ayoola, has written an open letter to President Bola Tinubu on the plight of university lecturers and the need to rescue deteriorating Nigerian universities.

The letter, titled: “On the low Morale Among Academic Staff in Nigerian Federal Universities,” was made available to The Guardian on Wednesday in Ibadan by Prof. Ayoola.

The Professor of Mathematics called on Tinubu to see to the plight of academics in Nigerian universities.

He lamented poor funding of the university system, saying it has led to low motivation and brain drain.

Ayoola said the primary purpose of this letter was to call the attention of the president to the plight and condition of service of academic members of staff of Nigerian public universities in this dispensation.

“The morale among this category of staff has never been this low since I was hired as an academic staff member at the University of Ibadan in 1989, some thirty-six years ago,” he said.
“It is time for the president to approve a comprehensive significant wage increase as a matter of priority for academic staff in public universities. Special packages should be worked out to attract and retain top-level and productive academic staff. A whopping number of these staff have died on the job in the last ten years in each public university. Many died because of poor wages and unaffordable health care expenses due to many terminal sicknesses and afflictions. Sedentary lifestyles are major characteristics of the academic profession. People have to sit down in the libraries, laboratories, and their study rooms for long hours each day, thereby developing at later stages of life some sicknesses that are consequent upon such lifestyles.”

He said many could not afford standard local and overseas treatment due to the paucity of personal funds, adding that, on the other hand, politically exposed persons and technocrats in government and other juicy sectors of the economy can afford such local and overseas treatments because of resources available to them.

Ayoola said the present salaries of academic staff cannot support such trips and treatments, and academic staff should be considered for living wages because of their contributions to manpower development in all sectors of the Nigerian economy.

He said: “Many retired academic staff experience delay in the release of their gratuities and monthly pensions. Some recently retired staff passed on while waiting for their entitlements. We recently lost a colleague, professor of physics in our university, before the first-year anniversary of his retirement. Academic staff should not be allowed to retire into poverty that cuts short their lifespan.

“Just some few days ago, sad news about a professor went viral on social media. A man who has spent his life in the classrooms, lecture halls, and libraries was in the news, not for publishing breakthrough research, not for mentoring future leaders, but for selling soup ingredients at a roadside stall, simply to survive. Another professor from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, is now publicly crowdfunding for thirteen million naira for urgent medical treatment. There is another senior lecturer in another university looking for twenty-three million to travel for life-saving care in India. These examples are indications of the helplessness of our academic staff and their poor incomes. These call for urgent presidential interventions.

“The present danger of a political economy that systemically despises the knowledge industry and treats the practitioners with disdain should be arrested forthwith. We should do away with a state structure that punishes academic competence and excellence. The country should eliminate a national mindset that glorifies quick wealth and trivializes intellectual and academic labour. Many of our children and students abhor academics as a profession because of the present adverse treatment and substandard remunerations that do not commensurate with many years of hard studies and toiling. We must put in place efforts that make academic professions attractive to our young ones for future sustainability of professional excellence at all segments of our national life.”

The professor called on the president to take action now.

He said: “I believe that it is not too late for our distinguished president to do something for academic staff in the Nigerian universities. Consequently, people like me will be happy if the president can do the following as a matter of urgency.

“Concluding and implementing the recommendation of the Yayale committee on academic staff welfare without further delay. It was reportedly submitted to the Minister of Education in December 2024. It is on record that former President Obasanjo improved the emolument of university staff during his tenure in the year 2000. President Tinubu should do similarly for university staff for posterity to write his name in gold.

“Ensure that the salaries of academic staff receive a major upwards review. This will encourage our young ones on ground to stay in the country. The elders in the system are currently finding it difficult to convince our young ones not to abandon the country for foreign jobs. But the crucial deciding factor will be respectable incomes that can go far in the face of the present high cost of living in the country.

“Ensure that academic staff in the universities are happy by boosting their morale. Payment of the outstanding three and a half months’ salaries will contribute to the happiness of staff.

“Immediate implementation of the terminal salaries as pension for professors that retire at age 70 or those that have spent at least 20 years as full professors before disengagement as passed in the pension acts of 2012. We are happy about your government efforts along that line.

“In addition, academic staff should normally be insulated from politics and should not be seen as politicians. The academic staff union consists of people sympathetic to diverse political ideologies. But the common characteristic is the academic service which everyone provides in their various disciplines. Academic service should be primary consideration and focus.

“Finally, there are criteria for quality rankings of universities in this era of digitalization. Such criteria include quality of instruction and research outputs as measured from diverse academic databases available worldwide relevant to each discipline. The publications in these databases are independent of any problem or unpleasant situation faced by any researcher around the world. The databases review and record the quality of contributions of any group of researchers from around the world. This is why the quality of funding and condition of service available to any researcher anywhere in the world will be a direct influence on the quality of the products or outcomes of such researchers and groups of researchers.

“Top-rated and competitive journals in each discipline will not publish any poorly researched article, and neither will such articles appear in respectable databases anywhere in the world regardless of where the researcher comes from. So, the issue of funding and emoluments of researchers are crucial factors that ensure the presence of Nigerian universities at the top of the ranking table.”