'A Professor's Monthly Pay is What My Gardener Earns in 3 Hours', Prof Abimbola Laments, Cautions Government to Rescue Nigerian Universities from Imminent Collapse

By: Olufemi Orunsola 

Former Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Prof Wande Abimbola has sounded a wake-up call to the effect that the University system in Nigeria faces imminent collapse unless the Federal Government urgently implement a bail-out for those working in the academic community in order to revive the quality of education.

OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports that the globally renowned university don, who expressed his lamentations during the September edition of BOILING POINT ARENA multi-cast public discourse show noted that Nigerian universities are experiencing the worst of time with Professors earning scandalous monthly take-home pay which is equivalent to what his own Gardener takes for a three-hour job of cutting grasses and trimming flowers in his residence in America.

OTN News further reports that the popular monthly interview discourse, BOILING POINT ARENA was hosted by a media professional and public relations strategist, Dr Ayo Arowojolu.

The programme, chaired by a frontline monarch, the Olowu of Owu, Oba Prof Saka Matemilola, was transmitted via Zoom and broadcast live on six radio stations, WASH FM, Sweet FM, Roots FM, Eri-mbe FM, Women Radio and Kruzz FM as well as a cable television, NSTV on Gotv Channel. 

The University don, who is also an internationally acclaimed scholar and former Senate Majority Leader, lectures in some major universities in the United States, even at his present age 92.

Excerpts of Prof Abimbola's drift during the interview is published below.

His words: "A university system is an important part of the fabric of any nation. As at 1989 when I left as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, our institutions were still at their peak of quality. However, within five years or less than ten years after my exit from the position of VC, I visited the University and almost cried because of what I saw, the level of decadence. It has been getting worse since then. 

"The most important thing about university is funding. We need to ask our governments, both at the federal and state levels, why they have been aloof and looking on until things got this bad. The Federal and State Governments don't really care. Why are they looking on as if they are not concerned? 

"The university system is getting worse and worse in every aspect. I don't even know how the faculty and staff of the Nigerian universities have been able to continue to survive on the pittance they take as salaries.

"Recently, about two years ago, I went back to the University where I was the VC. I visited my Department, and I was told that a full professor earns about N500,000 monthly. When we converted the amount, this is almost equivalent to the $300 academics elsewhere in the United States will use to take care of his garden within just three hours. 

"So, if these governments are not interested in supporting the universities, they should wind them up. It's a big shame to the Nigerian Government. When I went to Ile-Ife campus, the lawns where children used to play had been overtaken. It's a shame. 

"The worst part of it is that they are still establishing more universities. Everywhere you look, there’s a university of this and that. And why are they establishing more and more universities when the ones that exist are not catered for? Why are they not funding existing universities? 

"I think the best thing that we can do now is for the Federal Government to urgently set up a Commission of Inquiry on what we can really do to salvage the system and make things better. I think we have reached a stage where we need recommendations, which hopefully the people in charge will look at and use to make things better."

Prof Abimbola who is also an Ifa Priest and Babalawo, lamented that Nigerian Universities which used to be in the top 500 best universities ranking in the world and among the first 11 in Africa are now taking back seat positions in the top 1000 categories.

He continued: "I am sure that we can do better as a nation. Maybe it's a lack of understanding as to what a university is supposed to be, or the people in government don't understand that. The worst thing is that people in the past, even the recent past, used to think Nigeria is a place where the universities are wonderful because the products are everywhere in the world. We have produced so many people in science, in technology and in the arts, who are teaching or functioning in research and development all over the world."

According to him, some of the consequences of what's going on in the universities in Nigeria is that the professors are impoverished and cannot attend international conferences, nor can they write or contribute to international academic journals, adding that all these have implications on their ability to undertake researches.

"Nigerian universities are slowly dying before our very eyes. It is a big shame", he concluded.

The topic of discourse was: "Nigerian Universities: Tower of Crises, Citadel of Missed Opportunities. Can the Lost Glory be Reclaimed?"