The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Tax Policy and Fiscal Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has compared the salaries earned by Nigerian professors to those of their colleagues in other countries around the world......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
Oyedele, speaking on Monday, December 2 at a town hall meeting on the Tax Reform Bill organized by Channels TV, expressed concern about the earnings of lecturers in some of Nigeria’s top universities.
He pointed out that professors may not perform at their best if they are unable to provide for their families. As a lecturer himself, he mentioned that his colleagues in other countries are paid around $800,000 annually, which is much higher than the N400,000 earned by most professors in Nigeria.
He said: “That is not the solution to the funding of the education system. There was a survey that came out about last week or two weeks ago, and they did ranking of universities in Africa. There’s no Nigeria in the top 10. It is clear that, you know, I’m a lecturer myself, I lecture at a university as a professor. I don’t rely on the money because God has helped me to be able to, you know, get to the point where I am.”
“But every time I realize that a professor is only $400,000 a month, my heart bleeds. I’ve attended a course in the US before where the professor told me he was earning $800,000 per annum. The person that is only $400,000 in Nigeria cannot be there so body and mind because he cannot make ends meet. He can’t give his best.”
“What if you get to a point, which is the model that works in almost every country where education is developed? You cannot be charging 60,000 as school fees and you want to pay lectures for the 400k. You won’t find the money. Many of the schools are closing down because they can’t pay electricity bills. If we get to a point, and it has happened in Nigeria before, where the standard of education is at the level where it needs to be, you know what will start happening? Foreign students will come. They will charge them full, in fact, with premium.”
