A trip to AFCON, back, will cost 5 month wage of a Nigerian professor, says former UN special envoy

Prof Joy Ezeilo, a professor of law in Nigeria, on his X page said an equivalent of her five month pay is what it will take to fetch her return trip to Cote d’Ivoire to watch the African Cup of Nations, AFCON finals between her country and the host nation.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo is a Nigerian professor of public law and a six-year United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking persons in Africa.

She is also a former Commissioner for Gender and Social Development, Enugu State and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.

The revelation has caused a bit of storm on social media considering that politicians and political office holders have been all over the places in the West African country at the expense of what many perceive as tax payers money.

Here is how Prof Ezeilo explains the dilemma:

“I am dreaming of watching AFCON 2024 live, and I enquired about flights to Abidjan to watch our Super Eagles play in the finals.

“I believed that Ivory Coast being so close (an hour and 35 minutes) wouldn’t cost me too much.

“However, my travel agent of over twenty years sent me a price quotation of N2,183,000.00 (two million, one hundred and eighty-three thousand Naira), which was a huge shock.

“I did the Math and realized I would need to save my five months’ salary as a Professor of Law on the last professional step to buy one return ticket to a West African country.

“This is a sad reflection of our current economic realities,” the don said.

Nigerian academics are poorly paid.

By implication, if the professor intends to heed towards Abidjan, it will take her not less than five months of her salaries to afford the return ticket.

What the translates to is that the professor currently earns around N436,600 which in dollar terms is around $29.

For more than three decades, academics in Nigeria have been at logger heads with the government over need to improve work conditions of university teachers, resulting long strikes and ultimately mass transfer of labour and expertise to better paying climes.

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