Senate seeks improved budgetary allocations to universities to check brain drain

The Senate has called for improved budgetary allocations to universities in the 2025 budget in order to check brain drain and other challenges in the universities.

The senate’s decision followed the adoption of a motion titled “Urgent Need to Address Challenges of increasing cases of brain drain in the Nigerian University System” at plenary on Tuesday sponsored by Sen. Ani Anthony (APC- Ebonyi).

Ani, in his motion, highlighted that over the years, there has been a significant outflow of highly educated professionals in Nigeria, especially in the academia, in quests of better working conditions.

According to the law maker, this worsened the skill gap in the workforce and is capable of hindering economic growth and development of the country.

Ani stated further that the National Universities Commission (NUC) report indicated that many Nigerian universities operate with less than 50 per cent of the required academic staff.

He lamented that the remunerations of the Nigerian university lecturers were among the poorest in the world, and it was last reviewed over 15 years ago.

He added that this cannot meet the current economic realities of the country.

He pointed out that many universities in other Western African countries have better working conditions than what was obtainable in the Nigerian university system.

In his words: “I am worried over the continuous loss of experienced faculty members from our ivory towers to other countries, which is capable of impacting negatively on the quality of education.

“This reduces the effectiveness of teaching, learning, and mentorship for students in our higher institutions.

“Also worried that brain drain has assumed an unprecedented posture in recent time, due to the current economic situation of the country.”

He affirmed that the brain drain syndrome in Nigeria should be a cause for concern, as it threatens the survival of the nation’s higher education, particularly in engineering, medicine, and sciences, which are sectors that were critical for the socioeconomic development of the country.

The Senate, however, in its other resolution, mandated the Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFUND to liaise with relevant government agencies and work out modalities to check the spate of brain drain, in Nigerian universities.

In his remarks, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio said all hands must be on deck to proffer solutions to the issue of brain drain, as a matter of concern in the nation’s tertiary education.

The Senate President said that the reasons for brain drain were basically economic in nature and expressed his belief that a review of the employment of personnel in tertiary institutions would help mitigate the brain drain issue.