The steady depletion of the academic population in Nigerian Universities by the massive movement of skilled lecturers in search of greener pastures in universities located in other lands has continued to be a cause for concern. SIMEON NWAKUDU takes a critical look at this challenge
According to Dr. Jide Adelugba, a Consultant Psychiatrist, ‘’Nigeria’s state of socio-economic development dictates the necessity to harness all our resources for the betterment of her people’’. Thus everyday living in Nigeria needs no further documentation as it is a common knowledge that the standard of living here is very bad when compared with that of advanced countries of Western Europe and North America.
Standard dictionary defines brain drain “as the loss of skilled intellectual and technical labour through the movement of such labour to more favourable geographic, economic, or professional environ , depletion or loss of intellectual and technical personnel, a gradual depletion of energy or resources; a drain of young talent by emigration.”
Brain drain therefore is a popular expression demonstrating a situation whereby a significantly large number of highly skilled individuals leave a particular geographical area, usually their nations of origin, for other nations over a comparatively short period of time because of a variety of reasons.
Consequently the area from where they departed is impoverished one way or the other. Essentially their nations of origin are denied the services and expertise they would have otherwise provided.
By extension, brain drain has its hands in the deteriorating academic situation in institutions of higher learning and in our major industries. The private sector is denied the experience that such people would have brought to bear on the economy.
The root cause of brain drain in Nigeria could be traced to successive leaderships and governments that have demonstrated, very convincingly, that the interest of Nigeria and its citizens were never their priority as they relentlessly pursued their own agenda.
The gradient and outflow of brain drain in favor of the developed world should be a major source of concern to the developing nations and their governments at all levels. Nigeria is a prototype of such nations.
If the ideals of United Nations are honestly pursued, the issue of brain drain should attract their attention even at the Security Council level. Notwithstanding the legitimacy or otherwise of the causes of brain drain the fact is, brain drain is causing incalculable damage to Nigeria and other developing nations.
There are various reasons why professionals, for example, doctors decide to live and work in developed world. Irrespective of the propriety of such decisions the current situation is that the issue should be addressed at the highest level of government.
The blame for brain drain lies squarely with the various governments that have ruled the developing nations of Africa. Those governments, through their ineptitude and lack of vision, have turned their populations with productive capacities to willing sophisticated slaves in foreign lands.
The improvement to the life of the nation and that of ordinary Nigerians would increase exponentially if our drained manpower is backing home where it rightly belongs.
There is the need to bring the issue of brain drain to national and international consciousness; we have ignored it for too long and much to our own peril. The federal government and the national assemblies must discuss it. Nigeria deserves the establishment of a commission to look into the magnitude of the problems and proffer solutions. .
The socioeconomic welfare of our people will be invaluable only if at least fifty percent of Nigerian professionals currently abroad, especially medical doctors, were back working and living in Nigeria.
Addressing the problem, which will surely usher in a fresh hope and a sense of growth, can only re assure all and sundry that there is humane government in Nigeria..
Nigeria really has no alternative other than having governments and leaders that can demonstrably inspire the need to believe that our individual and collective hopes and aspirations is only realizable when we have brain gain instead of brain drain.
The determination by President Jonathan to inject fresh blood and make the teaching profession globally competitive, has no doubt encouraged the constitution of a well planned and properly funded framework to discourage academics from seeking greener pastures abroad.
As they say, the President has created the enabling environment in the nation’s universities to ensure that academics are duly motivated to build future leaders for the country in an atmosphere comparable to any in the world.
Under the current scheme, the President has attracted very senior academics from developed economies to contribute the setting up of the 12 new Federal Universities. The idea being that these academics with foreign backgrounds will team up with their Nigerian based colleagues to change the academic environment for optimal results.
Two of such key academics who were part of the President’s determined programme to attract Nigerian academics in the diaspora and help rebuild a moribund system include: Professor Bolaji Aluko, Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Otuoke and Prof Geoffrey Okogbaa, Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Wukari. Both Academics were engineering professors in the United States before they were drafted to join the transformation agenda.
Several other proven academics have been recruited by the Jonathan administration from the Diaspora to help the 12 new Federal Universities effectively take off and assist the administration achieve the goal of building world class institutions with the required proven intellectual philosophy.
For thousands of Nigerian trained academics in the existing and new state and federal universities, President Jonathan has expanded the scope of several international and local scholarships to bring them up to date to modern realities in university educationToday, several Nigerian public universities are processing applications from Nigerian academics in the Diaspora and foreigners who are keen to participate in the functional reforms taking place in the system.
The President is implementing the Needs Assessment report to improve infrastructure in universities with N1.3trillion, he has established a national books development fund to encourage Nigerian academics to write quality books and he has facilitated a research fund for the same academics.
Therefore, every single academic in a public university ready to make his mark, has the Presidential leverage to do so. The academic environment has been completely transformed. Beyond making available funds for research, journals and books, the National Universities Commission, NUC, has organised several training workshops for academics on proposal writing to access these funds and make positive impact on the university system.
The present administration has thus effectively sustained the transformation of the academic class of Nigerian public universities. The training and re-training programmes for the academics have developed a new era of academic excellence since the beginning of 2010.
Of course, a reassurance that willing academic professionals needed to key into the Presidential initiative for a new era of academic excellence in public universities was provided by President Jonathan during the recent 2013/2014 convocation ceremony of the University of Lagos.
At that event the President declared that he remains committed to sustaining the brain gain achieved by his administration through the consolidation of a functional enabling environment for teaching, research and community service.
The President pledged his commitment to continue his administration’s initiative to allocate substantial financial resources to academic programmes and development of public universities.
As quality public university system is beginning to evolve from the ashes of previous years of neglect, those who understand development know that there can be no quick fix to the system. They also know that the evolution kick-started by President Jonathan for public universities is a step in the right direction.
Nwakaudu is the Special Assistant (Media) to the Supervising Minister of Education
