Brain drain in Nigerian universities[10% payout to campus connect]

Nigeria as a country has suffered increased brain drain in different sectors of her economy over the years but it is has gotten really worse in recent years.

Brain drain is the massive movement of technical and well trained personnel in different sectors from a particular country to other countries usually in search of better working conditions and better pay. Human resource is the greatest form of wealth a country can have and the most developed nations have that in abundance.

In Nigeria, the health sector arguably has been the most affected sector especially but the education sector is swiftly following behind.

In recent times, we've seen massive exodus of lecturers especially the very good ones from Nigeria to other countries an it doesn't look like it would end anytime soon. This is frightening as Nigeria keeps losing her best brains. These individuals are trained in Nigeria with Nigerian resources but end up developing other countries. Of course, it is no fault of theirs.

The brain drain in Nigerian universities can be attributed to the following

• Security challenges: The high level of insecurity in Nigeria is heavily disheartening. People in certain parts of the country are no longer safe to go to work. Schools have been victims of attacks. Lecturers risk being killed, kidnapped or robbed. It is a sorry situation. It is only Understandable that these lecturers leave the country with the slightest opportunity they get to a country with better security.

• Unfavorable working condition is another reason. The public universities in Nigeria are not in a great shape for lecturers to do their job. Lecturers' office are not conducive enough, lecture halls are not even enough for these lecturers to do their work. This is one of the reasons the lecturers union, ASUU keeps having face offs with the federal government.

• The issue of low pay also contributes. The pay for a lot of lecturers are not just enough to survive in the current economic reality. As if that is not enough, sometimes lecturers are owed or paid incomplete salaries.
  Those are some of the major reasons among many others why we see brain drain in Nigerian education sector.

Concluding remarks
Brain drain has destabilized the structure of some Nigerian universities. It has placed some academic departments in the universities in sorry states resulting in poor performance of students in the labour market. In my department for example, about 60 percent of lecturers have migrated and this is putting a lot of extra load on the remaining lecturers who are underpaid.

In some departments, the middle level lecturers migrate, leaving the senior and junior level lecturers. The senior lecturers retire in a short while and the junior lecturers with little experience are left to handle several responsibilities like departmental and university administration as well as a heavy teaching.

In other cases, when senior lecturers leave, the departments lack leadership. Some departments in the universities don't even have a professor.