I choose to reproduce my response to a comment (on my Facebook wall) by Abdullahi A Abdullahi on my Facebook post titled, “Dr. Sheriff Almuhajir’s Exposition on Dr. Isa Ali Pantami – Setting The Record Straight (Part 1)” for more explanation.

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. Also, I did not set out to provide irrefutable proof that the Minister’s emoluments are truly less than that of an expatriate professor in Saudi Arabia. You can contact Dr. Pantami’s media aide for that purpose.
I only set to prove the following points and have gladly done just that:
(1) Sheriff Almuhajir is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing – he hid his true motive behind his unsubstantiated attack on Dr. Pantami in the first 2 posts on the subject until the last (3rd) one in which he poured out his heart.
(2) To sound justifiable in his attack and convincing in his argument, he ignorantly presented false perspectives on Saudi Arabian university teacher’s ranks and their salary structure. I cleared all the misconceptions he presented in his posts with regards to the above points in my article.

To be candid, if he had attacked Dr. Pantami purely on the grounds of his religious scholarship and teachings, I would not have written a single word in his defence, because, that will be glaringly crystal clear for all to judge and separate the wheat from the chaff.

What people fail to factor into the equation of this comparison is the fact that our currency, the Naira, is continuously being devalued year after year and that single factor will make our currently extremely weak against other stable currencies like the Saudi Riyal whose exchange rate to the US dollar has been stable at about SR 3.75/$ ever since I came to the Kingdom in 2010 when the Naira was exchanging at about N160/$ and now at N465/$ (190 % Naira devaluation). This significant Naira devaluation reduces the Naira value against any other stable currency like the Saudi Riyal and when hundreds of thousands or millions of Naira are converted into Saudi Riyals, they appear to have low value. This is not to talk about the accompanying inflation and reduction in the purchasing power of the Naira that are associated with the Naira devaluation. This is because, whether we like it or not, goods and services are directly or indirectly tied to the dollar exchange rate. Someone may be earning in 2020 far more than he did in 2010, yet, he was slowly and consistently moving backward when you compare his earnings in dollar terms. Look at the picture below and ponder upon it. One does not have to be an economist to understand that we are getting poorer and poorer by the day despite the fact that our Naira earnings have significantly grown over the years, yet, the rate of inflation in goods particularly is not commensurate with the rate at which our earnings increase.

Dr. Isa Ali Pantami was, for all intents and purposes legally a professor in Saudi Arabia based on Saudi Arabian professorial ranks, and Uwa Suleiman correctly referred to him as such. Those refuting his description as a ‘professor’ are only displaying their ignorance of the Saudi Arabian system and ignorance is not an excuse come what may! That is why I took my time to present a comprehensive review of the subject matter to enlighten my fellow Nigerians.