by Alexander O. Onukwue
There is still the question of whether members of the academia should bother about being directly involved in politics.
The Vice President is a professor or of International Law, a first time this would happen in the Nigerian political scene, though former Vice President and then President, Goodluck Jonathan, had a academic doctorate. The Minister of Health is traditionally a professor of some branch of medicine. Previous administrations have featured well performing professors as Ministers of Information, like Jerry Gana and Dora Akunyili.
It is not uncommon to find politicians who are professors come under heavy criticism whenever they are perceived as pontificating on the appropriateness of certain issues. Like the case of Prof Itse Sagay, a well known public critic of Government. Presently, he serves with the Buhari administration, but has not stopped short of still being blunt, only that his jibes are not targeted at the Executive but the legislature.
The Senate has called him out for being out of fashion and for being under a kind of “excitement” based on his comments on their salaries. The facts of his lecture and what appears to be obtainable from official records do not seem to check out, giving the impression that in his long running feud with the upper legislators, he may indeed have digressed from facts to opinions.
The salaries of Senators is something most Nigerians want to see cut down to a size that reflects the pay packages of other essential services personnel like teachers and policemen. Senator Ben Murray-Bruce asked on Twitter about the possibility of a part-time senate whose members would be paid based on appearance. Following after Osagie and MI Abaga, perhaps there should be a conversation between Prof Sagay and Senator Bruce on the topic?
Leave a reply