Victor EzejaA renowned academic and Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Victor Anosa, has decried what he described as “criminal neglect” of Nigeria’s educational system by political leaders, stating that it is responsible for the poor standard of learning.
Professor Anosa bemoaned the current state of academic remuneration in Nigerian universities, stating that professors’ monthly salary is around ₦560,000, which is less than the wardrobe allowance for lawmakers in the country.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAnosa stated this in his remarks during the launch of his book, titled “Destined for the Ivory Tower” in Lagos on Thursday, 22 May 2025.
The octogenarian scholar lamented that the educational system in Nigeria had risen to world standards with degrees from the first tier and other second-tier universities being accepted at the world’s best universities, but has unfortunately crumbled in the last three decades due to a couple of factors.
He said: “As Professor, I have watched our educational system soar to world standards with our degrees from Ibadan, Nsukka, Lagos and ABU as well as other second tier universities like Ife being acceptable at world’s best universities including Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard for their values, which prompted Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Christopher Ingold of the University of London to write in the visitors book of the Chemistry Department, University of Ibadan after a Ph.D. examination: Preeminent in Africa, and at par with the West’.
“Various factors, including poor funding, poor facilities, determined antagonism against Lecturers and Professors and criminal neglect by Nigeria’s rulers, military, and politicians, have in the past thirty to forty years destroyed our schools from primary to secondary and universities.”
The Veterinary Pathology professor said the challenges in the educational system has equally led to massive brain drain from Nigerian universities, as many high-quality academics left the system in search of greener pastures either abroad or universities in some African countries that offer better pay.
“The universities where I worked full-time for 51 years are the hardest hit and have suffered and are suffering massive external brain drain to metropolitan universities and even to African universities.
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“A check last Monday revealed that a professor in a federal university in Nigeria today gets a monthly salary of ₦560,000, which I guess is less than the monthly wardrobe allowance of our legislators, most of whom do not qualify to stand before university students. A nation that pays its brightest people less than the wardrobe allowance of its legislators is led by unwise leaders.
“There has also been a more disastrous internal brain drain from the universities in which our bright graduates with first and second upper degrees, who normally returned to earn their Ph. D.s and became lecturers and later Professors, have since the nineties flocked to jobs outside the universities in banks, etc. Lower-grade graduates took their places with second-class and even third-class degrees. This has diminished the quality of our lecturers and Professors, and our graduates,” Anosa stated.
According to him, the current monthly pay of professors in Nigerian universities amounts to between $295 and $300, which is a far cry from the $3,000 monthly pay to young professors and $5,500 for senior professors in some African universities.
He further stated that the pension paid to retired university professors is inadequate, as many of them who rely on it without other alternative plans have been impoverished.
Speaking on why he wrote the book, “Destined for the Ivory Tower”, which is an autobiography, Anosa, who was born in 1942, said he felt the need to document his experiences. These include his encounter with sociocultural events from childhood in Ojoto, a town in present-day Idemili South LGA of Anambra State; later experiences in the educational, social, political and economic realms of eastern Nigeria in general.
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“The lgbo and later Nigerian society I met between 1947 to now have changed so much that I felt it was necessary to record what I saw growing up in my hometown Ojoto, and later in the social, educational, political and economic realms of Eastern Nigeria in general that I needed to record them for posterity,” Anosa stated.
He said the autobiography tells the story of how he overcame his poor academic performance at basic school level and was able to soar to the zenith of his academic carrier, becoming one of Nigeria’s top-rated professors in the early 1980s and contributed significantly to the body of knowledge in the area of sciences.
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Anosa, who became a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences in 2012, explained that he penned down his experiences “to motivate young people in secondary schools and universities on how by strategic planning and hard work, they too can achieve the maximum successes, equitable to their God-given endowments.
“If I didn’t reach out to the depths of my being for myself-realization in 1958 onwards, I would simply have been discarded as a dunce and failure. My resurgence in class and school is really the major motivation for writing this book, Destined For The Ivory Tower.”
The book was reviewed by Dr Marcel Mbamalu, publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Prime Business Africa.
Dr Mbamalu said Victor Anosa’s autobiography was written in a simple language with a gripping narrative of his journey from rural childhood through his educational pursuit to professional excellence, and also “giving an insight into Nigerian immediate pre-independence and postcolonial identity, educational evolution, and communal values.”
The communication expert added that “Destined for the Ivory Tower is a cultural chronicle, a spiritual journey, and an intellectual biography. Through Anosa’s journey, the reader experiences a deeply personal yet profoundly communal odyssey: one destined to inspire, inform, and endure.”
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
