The recent trend of the university lecturers seeking opportunities outside the shores of Nigeria is no longer news. This self-inflicted brain drain is, according to ASUU’s National Investment Secretary and former chairman of the union, University of Port Harcourt chapter, Austen Sado, responsible for the dearth of professors and experts in Nigeria’s universities.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said that until the government decides to improve the conditions of service of university lecturers in the country, the brain drain experienced in tertiary institutions will not end.
Sado also proffers that a place to start in order to end the brain drain is to increase the emoluments of university lecturers in Nigeria to be equal to or even more than the average in Africa. He adds that if the government increases lecturers’ salaries, not only will they stay behind—ending the brain drain—they will also be more motivated to perform better, thereby enhancing the standard of tertiary education in Nigeria, and consequently attracting foreign students to Nigerian universities.