BY LUKA BINNIYAT
KADUNA – A member of the Institute of Chartered Economists of Nigeria, ICEN, Dr. Mansur Idris, yesterday, said that the federal, states and local governments in the country spent about N327. 85 billion on  public primaries, secondary and tertiary schools last year.

Idris, however, said the huge expenditure has not stopped brain drain as about 30,000 Nigerian professionals left the country for greener pastures abroad.

The ICEN Fellow who spoke during the induction for new members of the institute said the Federal Government spent N24.258 billion on primary schools just as N66.417 billion was spent on secondary schools within the same period.

He added: “The Federal Government further spent another N237.2 billion on tertiary schools as well as those being run by the state governments”.

On brain drain, he said: “In 1995 alone, 21,000 Nigerian medical doctors were practising in the Unites States. The figure excludes those in Saudi Arabia and the entire Gulf States, Europe, Australia and others”.

He added: “The estimates of the Presidential committee on Brain Drain set up in 1988 by the Babangida Administration, between 1986 and 1990, Nigeria lost over 10,000 academics from tertiary institutions.

“The total estimates, including those who left the public service, industrial and other private sectors, who are world class respected professional, were over 30,000 as at last year.”

He observed that, financing of higher education by government would continue to be under threat or de-emphasised due to high level of brain drain.

Idris noted: “The problem of brain drain has reached quite disturbing proportions in certain African countries, with Ethiopia ranking first in the continent in terms of rate of loss of human capital, closely followed by Nigeria.

“As at 2006, approximately eight million Filipinos were working abroad and they remitted about $10.7 billion or about 12% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Medical professionals were the highest, especially in the Middle East”.

“For China, it was estimated that only 30% of the Chinese students who  studied abroad returned to China, while the International Monetary Fund, IMF, ranked Iran the highest among the 90 countries surveyed.’’