Former Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Wande Abimbola, has lamented the meagre salaries of Nigerian professors and the worsening state of universities, warning that higher institutions risk collapse if urgent action is not taken.
He said professors’ salaries are “a pittance,” adding that the academic profession has been reduced to poverty. According to him: “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 ₦500,000 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.”
Abimbola recalled that during his tenure in 1989, universities were still strong. “Our institutions were still at their peak of quality. However, within five years or less than ten years after my exit, I visited the University and almost cried because of what I saw, the level of decadence. It has been getting worse since then,” he said.
He faulted governments for creating new universities without funding existing ones, arguing that if authorities are unwilling to support them, “they should wind them up.”
Calling for urgent intervention, he stressed: “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. I think the best thing we can do now is to urgently set up a Commission of Inquiry on what we can really do to salvage the system and make things better.
Abimbola also lamented the decline in global rankings, saying: “Nigerian universities are slowly dying before our very eyes. It is a big shame.”
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