In Nigeria, priorities differ.
Underworked and overpaid legislators would rather be paid more than teachers.
Nigeria’s hardest workers are its least paid. Teachers and informal sector workers do the grunt work for grubs.
This reality haunts Nigeria.
The Abia State University, Uturu, is the latest lab for testing unequal wages.
When Nnamdi Nwaeze, a professor at the university, wrote that professors earn less than tricycle riders, the university suspended him.
The parallel was on point.
For years, Nigerian academics have known imponderable indignities.
Low wages, poor working conditions, and crumbling infrastructure have made teaching more a chore than joy.
Teachers have cried in vain.
Government after government has deflected the debate.
There has been no strike action in a long time. The government says this is evidence of progress in teacher welfare.
Teachers deserve more.
Their reward may be in heaven, but proper remuneration isn’t bad.
In a country where public service often means self-service, teachers deserve the right remuneration and optimal conditions to work.
Teachers are invaluable.
A country that values them will not just tout it. It will show it.
Nigeria does not value its teachers. This lack of value explains the missing link between teaching and being taught.
Nigeria is losing the plot.
Education in Nigeria is losing its way with many students cut adrift.
Crumbling public schools, pitiable teacher welfare, and demotivated students are all symptoms of a rot that is running riot.
The society Is worse for it.
Disgruntled teachers offering disjointed education breed disrepair.
In direct consequence, young Nigerians deprived of a solid foundation cannot design any solutions to their problems.
Predictably, crime abounds.
With professors paid pittances, education is in peril.
The Nigerian state is stuttering under the weight of education. Without intervention,the burden will break Nigeria’s back.
Teachers aren’t targets.
Instead, reforms should be targeted at making the profession rewarding.
No one has yet gone to heaven and returned with confirmation that there is a reward for teachers in heaven.
Teachers must remain free.
As they teach, they must be able to speak freely without fear of consequences.
A country that fetters its teachers is one that leaves its future in tatters.
An allegation that tricycle riders earn more than professors should prompt introspection and not humiliation.
Wages are a barometer.
It is easy to tell the priorities of any society by where the wages go.
In societies that value human capital development, those who develop human capital earn the best wages.
Nigeria has work to do.
Africa’s largest democracy gleefully rewards political opportunists.
In a country trapped in a perpetual cycle of underdevelopment, public office holders earn absurd wages.
Corruption remains rife.
While teacher discontent rages, politicians can’t seem to have enough.
At the end of the day, Nigeria spends heavily to recover looted funds only for the cycle to be repeated.
The foundation is faulty.
Unless Nigeria prioritizes teacher welfare, something will remain broken.
As long as the channels of education remain clogged, nothing will change at the places they are supposed to.
Teachers are not the foes.
The enemy is poor planning and misplacement of priorities.
The suspension of Professor Nnamdi Nwaeze should be reversed. Punishing him is a pitiable response to pressing issues.
Nigeria is failing teachers.
Teachers should be paid more, among other benefits.
Their remuneration should be closely commensurate with the invaluable work they do. Anything else only creates problems.
Kene Obiezu is a lawyer and writer.
