The House of Representatives Committee on University Education has expressed worry over the increasing number of academic and non-academic staff leaving Nigeria’s universities without corresponding recruitment to fill the resulting gaps.
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Abubakar Fulata, made this known on Thursday during an oversight visit to federal and state-owned universities in the South-East.
Fulata said the development posed a serious threat to the stability and quality of tertiary education in the country.
He cited the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), as a case study, noting that the institution had lost over 3,000 teaching and non-teaching staff through retirement or death since 2019, with approval granted to recruit only 500 replacements.
“It is abnormal and dangerous for the university system to continue losing lecturers and non-academic staff through retirement or other causes without making provisions for replacements,” he said.
According to him, the imbalance in manpower is undermining academic continuity and weakening institutional capacity across the country’s universities.
The lawmaker urged the Ministry of Education, university governing councils, and other relevant agencies to act swiftly to address the manpower gap.
He warned that sustained vacancies in critical academic and administrative positions would further affect the quality of teaching, research, and service delivery.
Fulata also called for strict adherence to the federal character principle in the recruitment process, stressing that many universities had failed to reflect national diversity in their staffing patterns.
He noted that Nigeria’s tertiary education system had continued to face challenges such as poor funding, inadequate infrastructure, and low staff morale, which had been worsened by the mass migration of lecturers to other countries.
The committee chairman attributed the trend to poor working conditions, low remuneration, and limited research support, as well as recurring industrial disputes between unions and the government.
He assured that the committee would continue to engage stakeholders in the education sector to strengthen university education and reverse the trend of talent loss.
