The Nigerian Senate, on Tuesday, passed a resolution urging the Federal Government to significantly increase budgetary allocations to federal universities in the 2025 budget. The move is aimed at addressing the growing issue of brain drain within the country’s higher education system. The Senate also mandated its relevant committees to collaborate with the Ministries of Finance, Education, Health, and other agencies to develop comprehensive strategies to tackle infrastructure decay and improve the monthly remuneration of lecturers.
The resolutions followed a motion sponsored by Senator Anthony Ani (APC, Ebonyi South) titled “Urgent Need to Address the Challenges of Increasing Cases of Brain Drain in the Nigerian University System.” In his motion, Ani expressed concerns over the alarming rate of academic staff departures from Nigerian universities. According to a report from the National Universities Commission (NUC), many Nigerian universities operate with less than 50 percent of the required academic staff, a situation he attributed to the country’s current economic difficulties.
Senator Ani highlighted that the remuneration for university lecturers in Nigeria is among the lowest globally, with salaries remaining largely unchanged for over 15 years. He emphasized that these salaries no longer aligned with the country’s economic realities. “Brain drain has assumed an unprecedented posture in recent times, due to the current economic situation of the country,” Ani said. “This should be a cause for concern, as it threatens the survival of the country’s higher education, particularly in the engineering, medicine, and sciences, which are critical for the socio-economic development of this country.”
Several senators, during the debate, echoed Ani’s concerns, noting that brain drain was not limited to the education sector but was also affecting other critical industries such as healthcare. They pointed out that Nigerian doctors and nurses were leaving in large numbers every year to seek better opportunities abroad. The senators warned that this exodus of skilled professionals would have long-term negative consequences on the nation’s development.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, in his closing remarks, acknowledged the severity of the issue, stating, “Brain drain is a big problem not just in the education sector but in other critical sectors like the health sector, where no fewer than 22,000 Nigerian health workers are in the United States of America alone.” He expressed the Senate’s commitment to addressing the issue, adding that the legislature would work to improve conditions for university lecturers and other professionals to help curb the problem.
