Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, who plans to begin a two-week warning strike today, have lamented the exodus of over 309 professors from Nigeria’s public universities in the last nine months.
ASUU’s zonal chairman for Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and Katsina States, Prof. Abubakar Sabo, disclosed the mass exodus of the professors at a town hall meeting organised by the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) branch of the union at the institution’s City Campus.
Sabo said the continuous departure of senior academics in search of better working conditions abroad represents a growing “intellectual haemorrhage” that threatens the survival of public universities. He revealed that many of the scholars relocated to the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon and other countries.
“From the last action we had until now, we lost about 309 professors, some to private universities in Nigeria, others to the UK, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon and beyond. Our intellectual capital is being drained because the conditions of service no longer make it possible for many to stay and teach,” he said.
Sabo declared that the union will embark on a two-week warning strike today if the federal government continues to ignore its demands on funding, earned allowances and improved working conditions.
“We have been patient long enough. Our duty is to salvage public universities. If the government continues to ignore us, we will not fold our arms while the system collapses.
“When we gave a two-week ultimatum, the government only began making calls, then invited other tertiary unions like those of polytechnics and colleges of education to complicate the process. That’s a ploy to overstretch the education budget and frustrate our struggle,” he alleged.
Earlier, the chairman of ASUU-UDUS, Prof. Muhammad Almustapha, said the meeting was convened to alert Nigerians to the deepening decay in the university system and the government’s failure to fulfil its promises.
“Over the years, ASUU has, unfortunately, become synonymous with strikes because the government hardly honours its commitments. It has become a cycle of broken promises and dashed hopes,” he added.
The union called for urgent government intervention to halt the brain drain and prevent the total collapse of Nigeria’s public university system.
