Immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has raised the alarm over the mass exit of the institution’s brightest lecturers, blaming poor pay and harsh working conditions for the exodus.
Speaking as guest lecturer at The PUNCH Forum held along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogundipe disclosed that no fewer than 239 first-class graduates employed as lecturers by UNILAG between 2015 and 2022 had left the institution.
According to him, while the university recruited 256 first-class graduates during the period, only 17 remained as of October 2023.
“At UNILAG, we decided that those with first-class honours should be employed. What is remaining is not up to 10 per cent. All of them have gone,” Ogundipe lamented.
He attributed the trend to poor remuneration, an unconducive environment, and lack of motivation for young academics.
“In 2015, 86 were employed; in 2016, 82; during my time, that is, 2017 to 2022, 88 were employed. As of October 2023, only 17 were left. They have gone. Very soon, in the next 10 years, you will have only females in the universities if something is not done,” he warned.
Ogundipe, who is also the Pro-Chancellor of Redeemer’s University, decried the chronic underfunding of the sector, stressing that federal and state allocations to education had consistently fallen below UNESCO’s benchmark of 15 to 26 per cent.
“By the time you get home, there is no light, and the Federal Government is saying they are giving us N10m to access as loans. You can see how our lives have been devalued. Can I use N10m to build a security post?” he queried.
The former VC predicted that if the trend persisted, Nigerian universities would, in a decade, become dominated by women, while postgraduate enrolment would be flooded with poorly qualified candidates.
He called on the National Assembly to legislate that each first-generation university should receive at least N1bn annually to tackle decayed infrastructure, warning that reliance on Internally Generated Revenue was starving research of much-needed funds.
While urging both federal and state governments to increase allocations, Ogundipe also advocated for innovative funding, including alumni endowments, public-private partnerships, education bonds, philanthropy, and leveraging the Nigerian diaspora.
“The private sector should see education support not just as social responsibility but as enlightened self-interest in building the workforce and markets of tomorrow. To alumni, home and abroad, remember that the institutions that made you now need you. Give, mentor, endow, and advocate for your alma mater,” he said.
He further urged civil society, faith-based groups, and the media to keep education on the front burner, while calling on international partners to support domestic resource mobilisation.
“Above all, to every Nigerian, let us see education as the most sacred trust we must pass to our children. Our fingerprints, our footprints, our names should be found in the library buildings, the digital labs, the scholarships, and the lives changed,” Ogundipe added.
