To get a full grasp of what I set out to achieve by writing these articles, you need to read Part 1 – 3.

Part 1 was aimed at debunking Sheriff Almuhajir’s claims that Dr. Pantami was not a professor in Saudi Arabia as claimed and that the salary of academics in Saudi Arabia is rigidly fixed, without any possibility of variability. On his 1^st claim, I proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Dr. Pantami was, in essence, a professor in Saudi Arabia. This is no conjecture! On his 2^nd claim, I also explained the obvious, i.e., for the fact that all expatriate academics in Saudi Arabia are on contract, it goes without saying that a contract is ‘negotiable’ based on some considerations which I presented in my article. This is again no conjecture!

In Part 2, I reiterated that:

“I did not set out to present a table juxtaposing the exact values of salaries and allowances of a Minister versus an expatriate professor in Saudi Arabia.”

This article titled, “Do University Professor in Saudi Arabia Earn More Than Nigerian Minister?” attempted to present some exact values of the total emoluments for comparison.

In Part 3, I set out to respond to 4 questions raised by Prof. Dankofa: 2 of them were conjectures (20 million housing allowance which later turned out to be about 4 million and severance gratuity of hundreds of millions which later turned out to be about 6 million) and the remaining 2 were clearly out of context (flying first-class and official cars) because they did not fall within the purview of salary or allowance. With regards to the purported housing allowance 20 million, I analyzed one of the accommodation options granted academics in Saudi Arabia and proved that the cost of the accommodation is by far more than the concocted 20 million annual housing allowance for Ministers. This is again no conjecture. As for severance gratuity, I mentioned a case in which someone received over a hundred million in Saudi Arabia as the end of service benefit before it was reviewed downward. This is no conjecture! I also responded to the remaining 2 claims that were out of context.

Sincerely speaking, the Minister’s claim that he earned more as a professor in Saudi Arabia than as a Minister is not supposed to be a bone of contention at all for all those who have the slightest idea of what obtains abroad in salaries and allowances. Now I realized that this clear-cut and indisputable information is actually at the disposal of a select privileged few. I can assure you that all those making noise about this matter are either mischievously misinforming people with some bogus and unsubstantiated figures (housing allowance – 20 million instead of 4 million; severance gratuity – hundreds of millions instead of 6 million) or do not have good foreign exposure and experience that will enable them to understand first-hand the salaries and allowances of academics abroad.

I am not oblivious of the fact that our political office holders sometimes use vague and misleading statements just to gain cheap and undeserved popularity. This is certainly not one of them. Just 2 days back, another Nigerian academic, based abroad mentioned that he earns more than twice what the Nigerian President officially earns.

I am not unaware of the plight of Nigerians which has blinded us from seeing anything good in any political office holder. This led us into believing that any political office holder is just there to enrich himself and steal our money, no more no less. While this may hold for some of them, it certainly does not apply to all. We still have people of integrity, people we can trust, people who can undeservedly forgo their comforts and personal preferences for something more valuable to them, i.e., the rare privilege to wholeheartedly serve Nigerians. This is their way of giving back to the motherland that has nurtured them into becoming whoever they may ever be. Not all diasporans can leave their comfort zones to come back to serve Nigerians for obvious reasons. Those that are selfless and courageous enough to accept the clarion call deserve our support and appreciation because they sacrificed to come back home to give back to the motherland what other diasporans cannot do for whatever reasons. If this is not a “sacrifice”, then I wonder what other patriotic act can qualify to be described as a “sacrifice”! Hence, leaving the diaspora to take a government job is indeed a “great sacrifice”. To me, “sacrifice” and “giving back” are the two sides of the same coin, they are all driven by patriotism.

Living in the diaspora for study or work comes with useful experience and exposure that positively reshape one’s overall touch. Two diasporan Nigerians that come to mind: (1) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and current President of the African Development Bank (nominated to the post by the PDP government and later supported by the incoming APC Government in 2015 and renominated by the APC in 2019) (2) Dr. Ngozi Okongo-Iweala, former Nigerian Minister of Finance under PDP and current nominee for the post of the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) – nominated by the APC Government.