Japa Wave: University Administrators Panic Over Exodus Of Academics
…Quality Of Teaching, Research Threatened
LAGOS – A veil of anxiety appears to have been flung over university campuses in Nigeria in the wake of academics leaving the country amid the japa wave.
University administrators have been thrown into panic as the number of lecturers available for teaching is fast diminishing.
According to Statista Research Department, as of 2019, 11.9 thousand professors were working in Nigerian universities.
Female professors were 1.8 thousand, while male professors added up to 10.1 thousand.
That year, 1.8 million full-time undergraduate students and 121 thousand full-time master students were enrolled in Nigeria.
A recent shocking disclosure by the National Universities Commission states that only 100,000 academic staff members are at present attending to 2.1 million students in Nigeria’s 263 federal, state and private universities.
With the proliferation of universities in the country, the estimated Lecturer/Student ratio is put at 21:1. Conversely, the American University system has a 74% 4-year graduation rate, 11 to 1 lecturer /student ratio and 61% Classes with fewer than 20 Students.
According to the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Prof. Nurudeen Almustapha, about 100 lecturers have called it quits with the university in recent months.
Also, the Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Lagos (UNILAG), chapter Kayode Adebayo told Sunday Independent that the institution has suffered the Japa syndrome as some of the faculty members have left the system while others are still contemplating the option to seek greener pastures abroad.
The Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State, recently raised the alarm to fill hundreds of existing vacancies for lecturers at the institution.
The story is not different at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, as the institution has vacancies for over 350 lecturers who will be required to fill existing vacancies.
Prof. Jeremiah Ojediran, Vice-Chancellor of Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun, at a recent forum, appealed to the Federal Government to improve the funding of education, to reduce the “Japa Syndrome” in the country.
Prof Ojediran noted that lack of facilities across universities, poor funding and remunerations were some of the factors contributing to brain-drain in the education sector.
He said: “The Federal Government needs to make education more attractive by increasing funding, providing new infrastructure and improving on the ready facilities in place, to boost research and publication.
“In addition, they should increase the salaries of workers so that they can compete favourably with their international counterparts.
“Increasing the workers’ salary is very imperative as what people outside earn as salary is 10 times more than what people are paid in Nigeria.”
In the same vein, Prof. Oluseyi Ajayi from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Covenant University, lamented that the mass exodus is not solely driven by the desire for financial gain but that it also stems from a quest to contribute to society and utilize innate abilities to improve the environment.
“The countries where they have gone are those that have over the years focused on adequate energy access, and appreciate indigenous solutions to industrial challenges and production needs,” he said.
In his address during the 22nd National Delegates Conference at the University of Jos, Plateau state, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, raised the alarm over the frightening issue of the brain-drain, saying the university system is fragile.
The Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, recently urged the 3rd Set of Bachelor of Nursing Science graduates of the LASU College of Medicine, Ikeja, to jettison the idea of relocating out of the country but staying back to practice their profession.
The VC, who acknowledged that Nigeria is facing challenges in the medical profession, urged them to consider the country first on moral grounds.
Painting a gloomy picture of the Japa situation in the country, the President of the Faculty of Public Health and Community Medicine, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Professor Akinsanya Osibogun, disclosed that 50 percent of graduate doctors have left Nigeria.
