For over five decades, Professor Victor Anosa walked the hallowed halls of the University of Ibadan, imparting knowledge, mentoring generations, and making significant contributions to veterinary science. However, today, in his twilight years, he shares the same fate as many retired Nigerian academics – struggling to survive on meagre pensions and relying on their children to make ends meet.
At the launch of his autobiography, Destined for the Ivory Tower, held recently in Lagos, the distinguished professor did not mince words about the harsh reality facing retired professors in Nigeria. “After 35 to 40 years of service to a most ungrateful and unthinking nation, our best minds now live in retirement poverty,” he said.
According to Anosa, most retired professors receive between N200,000 and N300,000 monthly, if it is even paid at all. “Many depend on their children just to feed and buy medications. These are people who gave their lives to shaping the minds of future leaders,” he lamented.
It is not just a personal tragedy; it is a national shame. While university professors are paid peanuts, federal lawmakers in Nigeria receive wardrobe allowances that exceed a professor’s entire monthly salary. “A nation that pays her brightest people less than the wardrobe allowance of her legislators is led by unwise leaders,” Anosa declared.
This imbalance has ripple effects. Students now learn from underpaid lecturers, many of whom are not the best brains. The result? Brain drain. Talented graduates with First Class and Second Class Upper degrees no longer aspire to academia; they flee to banks, multinationals, or relocate abroad.
A student at the University of Lagos, who gave her name as Faith, said, “Why should I dream of becoming a lecturer when my professor lives in a one-room apartment and borrows money from students?” This growing disillusionment, experts say, could affect the future of education in Nigeria.
Interestingly, other African countries treat their academics far better. In South Africa, retired professors receive pensions based on their final salaries, adjusted for inflation. In Botswana, retired university dons are provided with subsidised housing and medical benefits. Ghana, Nigeria’s close neighbour, also guarantees better gratuity packages for its retired lecturers.
According to Dr Tunde Okunade, an education policy analyst, “We cannot keep punishing excellence and expect national progress. If Nigeria values education, it must begin by valuing educators.”
What can be done? First, pension reforms must include a special category for academic staff, ensuring they receive dignified pensions upon retirement. Secondly, universities should partner with private firms to create retirement investment schemes. Thirdly, financial literacy training must begin early for academics.
“We must not only celebrate our professors when they die; we must support them to live with dignity,” Anosa stressed.
In the end, Destined for the Ivory Tower is not just a memoir – it is a wake-up call. A nation that forgets its teachers is a nation that forgets its past and its future. Moreover, Nigeria, according to many, is dangerously close to that edge.
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