Usman Labaran.
While the effort of President Tinubu to lift Nigerian lecturers from the trenches Buhari left them in is commendable, the hard truth remains this: a professor in Nigerian universities lived far better in 2015 than in 2026.
Between 2009 and 2015, when Jonathan and PDP were leaving the government, one month’s net salary of a professor at the bar could comfortably fund a one-week holiday in London. That same salary today struggles to cover basic household needs, let alone international travel.In 2009, my two months’ net salary as an Assistant Lecturer (about ₦112,000 per month) could conveniently purchase a return ticket to London but now it can’t buy a return ticket from Abuja to Lagos.
This is the tragedy of Nigeria’s wage reality: salaries may rise on paper, but purchasing power keeps collapsing in practice.
A professor who once represented prestige and financial stability now battles inflation, currency depreciation, and declining living standards.The issue is not whether salaries have been adjusted.
The real question is whether those salaries can still buy the life they once did. Professor Amoka Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
