Problem of paying peanuts to professors, By Farooq Kperogi

The last few days have witnessed intense social media debates among the Nigerian chattering classes about the unacceptably miserable remuneration of university teachers. The debates were stirred by two incidents.

The first was the widely shared story of one Professor Nasir Hassan-Wagini in Katsina, who sells tomatoes and soup ingredients in a rural open market to supplement his income from university teaching.

The second was the directive from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to its branches to commence a no-work-no-pay strike action in protest against the delayed payment of their June salaries, which have been rendered worthless by the hyperinflationary inferno currently engulfing Nigeria.

Some people argue that scholars worth their salt should never listlessly give in to the humiliation of receiving take-home pays that don’t take them home (with apologies to the Professor Attahiru Jega-led ASUU, which popularized this inventive phrase in the 1990s) and should instead find alternative means to supplement the starvation wages the government gives them.

Others, however, contend that asking university teachers to leave the system or use their expertise to explore different income streams misses the point about the wretched state of university education in Nigeria, which directly affects the future (and even the present) of the country. The view holds that the problem is more structural and systematic than individual.

If all dissatisfied public university lecturers were to resign their jobs or devote more attention to “side hustles” to complement the miserly wages they receive, there would be no university education to speak of. In fact, it would amount to cowardly avoidance and tacit exculpation of the government from its responsibility to fund education to secure the country’s future since no one debates the direct relationship between well-funded higher education systems and national growth.

It was French-British businessman James Goldsmith who popularized the expression, “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” Poor remuneration repels the best and attracts the worst. Every responsible and progressive government invested in the future of its people knows this.

READ ALSO:

• US court jails Nigerian socialite 11 years for $1.3m COVID-19 fraud
• Court orders prosecution of auxiliary nurse linked to Mohbad’s death
• Bandits kill 7 passengers, abduct others along Funtua –Tsafe road

Yes, there are many metaphoric monkeys teaching in Nigerian universities because poor pay has lowered the bar and allowed mediocrity to thrive. However, some of Nigeria’s best and brightest minds still teach and research in public universities in spite of the poor pay. When smart people are paid peanuts, they either stop performing effectively or leave the system altogether.

The truth is that the current compensation of university teachers in Nigeria is simply untenable. No Nigerian professor earns more than 750,000 naira per month, equivalent to about $500. A December 12, 2021, Daily Trust fact-check found that “Nigerian academics are indeed earning below their peers in the continent.” That is an abject embarrassment.

University teaching should provide a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, but no Nigerian university teacher, including senior professors, can afford such a life with current salaries, especially considering the unprecedented inflation triggered by fuel subsidy removal and naira devaluation.

On Tuesday, Minister of Education Tunji Alausa bragged about fending off the planned ASUU strike protesting delayed salaries. “Our children are the heartbeat of the nation, and their uninterrupted education is non-negotiable,” he said.

However, the minister didn’t address the elephant in the room. The relative stability in public universities is a stability of the graveyard. University teachers haven’t downed tools because they are exhausted from previous strikes that produced no results, yet they remain as disillusioned as ever. Many lecturers cannot afford transportation to campus after paying their children’s school fees, and those entirely dependent on their salaries face daily financial humiliations.

Now, most young people with sharp scholarly and pedagogical talents avoid academia. It used to be that although people knew university teachers weren’t rich, they were respected for their learning and because they could afford basic middle-class conveniences. Instead of celebrating forced, unnatural, and unsustainable “stability,” the education minister should focus on improving university teachers’ quality of life and research and teaching infrastructure.

Interestingly, I am writing this column from Japan, where I have been vacationing for the last nine days. Japan’s public universities have significantly contributed to the nation’s spectacular economic growth historically and in modern times.

Public universities here are major engines of research and development (R&D). They drive innovation in science and technology, conduct nearly 50 percent of Japan’s basic research, and increasingly collaborate with industry to translate knowledge into practical innovations.

I visited two public universities here and found that Japanese public universities have become innovation hubs. They house technology licensing offices, incubate startups, and produce patents and spin-off companies that contribute to new industries.

READ ALSO:

• Super Eagles need miracle to qualify for World Cup – Ahmed Musa
• Edo Gov Okpebholo vows to probe predecessor Obaseki
• 2027: Atiku, Obi, Amaechi to sign agreement before ADC presidential primary

Japan’s “economic miracle” in the 1960s and beyond was fueled by capital and technology importation and by a steady supply of engineers, scientists, managers, and professionals trained at universities. Empirical studies of growth accounting found that improvements in labor quality (that is, education level) substantially contributed to Japan’s GDP growth over the past century.

Japanese universities did not become innovation hubs by accident. They achieved this by adequately funding universities, ensuring teachers were happy, and encouraging mass enrollment in higher education.

University teachers in Japan are well compensated. According to WorldSalaries.com, remuneration for Japanese university teachers is about twice the overall national average income and on par with senior corporate managers. In fact, engineers in prestigious industries, such as the auto and tech sectors, which are the engines of Japan’s prosperity, on average, earn significantly less than professors.

In Japan’s labor market, the university lecturer is a high-status, well-paid profession, surpassed only by top executives in the private sector. Because of this, Japanese universities attract the very best.

Every society that is desirous of progress should pamper its best and brightest so they can gestate, germinate, and grow rarefied ideas that can advance the country.

In a private exchange on Wednesday, Professor Toyin Falola, the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas, emphasized the critical importance of having a societal surplus to sustain what he called an “idle class.”

This “idle class” comprises individuals whose primary function is the creation, contemplation, and cultivation of ideas. This concept is essential in understanding the role and value of university lecturers and researchers in Nigeria.

The characterization of scholars as “idle” arises from a superficial perception of productivity. Unlike immediate commercial or industrial outputs, scholarly work often lacks immediate tangible results. Ideas and innovations require extended periods of gestation, contemplation, iterative refinement, and rigorous critique before manifesting into practical solutions or breakthroughs that visibly drive societal progress.

Historically, societies that invested in intellectual surplus, such as ancient Greece, medieval Islamic caliphates, and Renaissance Europe, experienced significant cultural, scientific, and economic advancement. These civilizations explicitly recognized the necessity of supporting thinkers, philosophers, and scientists who appeared outwardly “idle,” yet whose intellectual labor provided foundational insights that drove sustained growth and development.

In contemporary Nigeria, adequately funding university teachers and researchers is pivotal. Providing financial stability, institutional support, and intellectual freedom necessary for scholarly pursuits cultivates an environment for transformative innovations.

Paying scholars well (and, of course, insisting on accountability) acknowledges the long-term societal value of intellectual labor. Nigeria’s path forward (economically, socially, technologically, and culturally) hinges significantly on its capacity to sustain this “idle class,” whose quiet contemplation today shapes tomorrow’s innovations.

If President Bola Ahmed Tinubu genuinely wants to leave a lasting legacy, he must prioritize rebuilding Nigeria’s public university system by creating the conditions necessary to attract and retain the nation’s brightest minds. That means paying university teachers a livable wage, investing in their professional dignity, and resourcing institutions to become engines of innovation and progress. Anything less is a betrayal of the country’s future.

Problem of paying peanuts to professors, By Farooq Kperogi

Farooq Kperogi is renowned Nigerian columnist and United States-based Professor of Journalism.