• As professor lobbies to be aide of lawmaker
• FG seeks patience for reforms
Presidential flag-bearer of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has expressed concern over the deplorable state of the economy that would make a professor in a Nigerian university lobby to be an aide to a federal lawmaker, rather than continue teaching.
He stated that his encounter he had with the don in Nsukka, on Wednesday, made him ponder over the pitiable state of his affairs as a professor for 14 years.
Obi added that the academic even sought his intervention to land him the job.
The Anambra ex-governor’s mission in Nsukka was to campaign for a LP Rep member involved in a court-declared by-election when he ran into an old friend and a professor with the “pathetic story that mirrors the plight of virtually all working class in the nation’s tertiary institutions in the country.”
Sharing the touchy story on his X handle, Obi wrote “My two key assignments in Nsukka, Enugu State on Wednesday as significant as they were, got consumed in my chance, but the emotional encounter with an old friend and university mate, now a professor in the institution.
“My mission in Nsukka was for two important events. First, was to visit and assess a dilapidated health centre, and second, to campaign for one of the federal legislators, Dennis Agbo, contesting to represent Udenu/Igbo Eze North Federal Constituency in the forthcoming bye-election on Saturday.”
He expressed the confidence that legislators are committed to the good of his people.
However, he met one of those brilliant fellows he knew then as student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the 80s, who graduated with a first class and became a lecturer in the institution.
According to him, his salary as of January 31, 2010, 14 years down the drain, remains the same to date, having reached the pinnacle of his career.
Meanwhile, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi, yesterday pleaded with Nigerians to be patient with the reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
Tinubu, who came into office last May, has initiated a string of reforms, including the floating of the Naira and removal of the much-debated fuel subsidy.
The moves have triggered a spike in the cost of living with inflation soaring.
But Malagi believes these are bound to happen, maintaining that in the long run, the reforms would yield fruit.
“I want you to remember that the President is seven months old in office. I am not going to make excuses that seven months are just a short time,” he said on a live programme.
The minister added: “But for a long-term plan, you need a lot more time to put structures (in place). But of course, as you trudge along, there will be shocks, turbulence and occasional dislocations that you would find. But the vision of the President is very clear: he wants to take Nigeria to the desired prosperity. He works day and night to achieve that.”
