The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, has lamented the great vacuum left behind by the massive exodus of professionals from Nigeria.
Adebowale cited an instance of such a vacuum and the bottleneck in filling the gaps in Ibadan on Monday at the induction ceremony into the medical profession for the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) of the graduating class of 2022, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.
“It is one of the headaches of the Nigerian university system today.
“As I was coming here, I got a report of a department where we have 13 lecturers, and nine resigned because they are leaving the country.
“They were not going abroad to come back. They are going abroad to stay,” Adebowale said.
The VC lamented that there were many such cases that he couldn’t go on to talk about at the event.
He said there had been an incursion of politics into the Nigerian education system which has not been helpful at all.
Adebowale said that in the past, the VC could employ lectures, citing his appointment as lecturer, which happens within 24 hours. However, he noted that the situation has changed for the worse.
“To employ a single lecturer and put the lecturer on the payroll you have to go through seven MDAs, you have to move from one place to another.
“And I cannot be saying some of the things they ask for. I have gone there personally and it is the CEO that has to go before they can be attended to. If anybody goes, he or she will not make any progress,” the VC said.
Adebowale said there were a lot of universities that were sending other people and they have remained on the same point.
“It is very unfortunate and what we can do, i do not know but i know that that is one of the headaches of the vice-chancellors,” he said.
The VC, however, charged the inductees with being good ambassadors of the institution and giving back to their alma mater in whatever ways they could.
There’s only one life per person, and the quality of life lived depends on several factors, a major one being emoluments at one’s place of work. Another one is the treatment one receives in the environment. In Nigeria, academia has been demonised, traumatised and vilified. Why won’t they look for a better place where they are highly valued, and respected and we’ll remunerate them? There’s only one life to live o!