The crisis in varsities over mass exodus of lecturers

Given that education is the bedrock of development at both personal and corporate levels, reports that teachers, particularly at the tertiary level, are moving in droves for greener pastures abroad is most disheartening.

The development can only compound the sorry state of public universities in Nigeria which has been reverberating across the nation with stories of poor performance, low motivation and poor state of infrastructure among others.

This cuts across the other tiers of primary and secondary levels. While the primary and secondary levels have been dominated by private operators, the tertiary is continually being infused by the licensing of more and more private operators with the continual emergence of private universities over the past few years. Government has largely left the public universities in a very sorry state that currently there is “fire on the mountain” in these institutions across the country. The public universities which are owned by the federal and state governments system currently need urgent attention.

The looming crisis triggered by the exodus of teachers, if not checked, would not only lead to acute shortage of teaching staff, but also affect quality of teaching in the institutions. Already, about 50 per cent of lecturers have reportedly resigned from the various universities, while others who are yet to leave are also warming up. Factors fuelling the exodus, according to investigation, include the desire for better working conditions, career fulfillment, insecurity, poor salaries, inadequate funding, non-payment of outstanding salaries of university teachers, which accumulated during the period of strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as well as harsh economy, among others.

Recent data gathered showed that as much as 80 per cent of the remaining workers are preparing to leave if the current situation persists.
Although President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently approved the implementation of 35 per cent and 23 per cent of salary increment for staff of all federal tertiary institutions, the increment does not appear to dissuade many from considering alternatives.

Under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the Federal Government established at least one university in every state of the federation, especially in states where none existed. However, the management and funding of these institutions has been a big challenge to the government with the authorities having a running battle with the staff unions in these institutions, namely the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU). Understandably, the most vociferous challenge to the government on these issues has come from ASUU, given the critical role academic staff play in the maintenance of standards and transfer of knowledge to the next generation.

Currently, many academic staff in public universities are dissatisfied. Many are resigning their jobs and seeking better opportunities abroad.  The mentoring programmes in many of these universities through the enrolment of first class graduates with automatic employment are also collapsing given that many of these brilliant graduates have abandoned the programmes and found new opportunities outside the country leveraging on global opportunities in grants, scholarships and various financial aids in the UK, USA, Canada and many other parts of the western world.

The deterioration of the system was largely aggravated by the draconian approach adopted by the Muhammadu Buhari administration in its dealings with the staff unions especially ASUU. Despite progress made in the renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement which ASUU had with the government through the establishment and submission of a report by the Nimi-Briggs Committee, the Buhari administration failed to address the issues of remuneration in the public universities with outstanding earned allowances and other benefits left unattended to. The deterioration in the remuneration structure for academic staff which worsened with the general downturn in the Nigerian economy with inflation hitting the roof, has seriously affected the morale of these staff in the universities. This needs to be addressed.

The over-bloated admission policy of the government in the universities where excess capacity in admissions have become the order of the day with excess workload increasing pressure on the work circumstances of these staff is also a thing of worry. Other debilitating factors responsible for the prevailing crisis in the universities include career fulfilment issues, insecurity and inadequate funding. These are the reasons why many academic staff are resigning in droves. This unfortunate development cuts across the major public universities such as the University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, University of Benin, Obafemi Awolowo University and the newer generation universities such as the University of Ilorin, University of Uyo, Federal University, Otuoke, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun as well as state universities such as Adekunle Ajasin University Ondo State, Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma; and Kaduna State University.

For the federal universities, replacement of staff is made difficult with the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which prohibits universities from recruiting new staff to fill gaps in the staff structure as was the case hitherto when temporary appointments can be made to address identified gaps in the teaching faculty. Also question marks over the use of adjunct staff as well as contract staff as implied in the implementation of the IPPIS model have become counterproductive in the efficient running of the universities. These issues call for a proper revisit of the university autonomy concept which has not been fully actualised, as has been raised by ASUU over time. Except provision is made for University Vice Chancellors to recruit without unnecessary resort to the authorities in Abuja or the state capitals, the crisis in the universities will continue unabated.

The administration of President Bola Tinubu should address these issues confronting the universities. The salaries of the academic staff should be significantly reviewed upwards. In U.S. dollar terms, the highest paid Professor earns less than $500 monthly, about the lowest on the African continent.

This is sad as no public university can attract a quality foreign academic staff to itself. Second, the backlog of owed salaries due to the last strike in the university system should be paid forthwith with a commitment from the unions to commit to a more proactive approach in addressing their challenges going forward.

This resort to a political solution would be a better option than a wholesome adoption of the “no work, no pay” ruling of the Industrial Court, as the legal option will not bring a lasting peace to the system.

The administration should also work hard to bring about a meaningful implementation of the university autonomy concept such that the university alumni and other critical stakeholders are brought on board in the salvaging of the public universities in the interest of the generality of the Nigerian population, especially for the poor working class. Overall, the government needs to do a lot more to drive away common criminality and ensure safety of lives and property in all parts of the country.