Brain Drain: Senate Seeks Increased Budgetary Allocations To Universities

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

This followed adoption of a motion at plenary on Tuesday.

The motion, titled ‘Urgent Need to address challenges of increasing cases of brain drain in the Nigerian University System,’ was sponsored by Senator Ani Anthony (APC- Ebonyi).

Senator Ani, in his motion said 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 him, “this worsened the skill gap in the workforce and is capable of hindering economic growth and development of the country.”

Senator Ani said 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 expressed worry that the remunerations of the Nigerian university lecturers was among the poorest in the world, and it was last reviewed over 15 years ago.

This, he said cannot meet the current economic realities of the country.

The Lawmaker lamented that many universities in other Western African countries have better working conditions than what was obtainable in the Nigerian university system.

He said; “I am worried over the continuous loss of experienced faculty members from our ivory towers to other countries, 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 stressed that the brain drain syndrome in Nigeria should be a cause for concern, as it threatens survival of the nation ‘s higher education, particularly in engineering, medicine and sciences.

Senator Ani said the sectors were critical for the socioeconomic development of the country.

However, the Senate 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 Nigeria universities.

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

Senator Akpabio said that “the reasons for brain drain was basically economic in nature.”

He expressed believe that a review of the emolument of personnel in tertiary institutions would help mitigate the brain drain issue.

Mercy Chukwudiebere