ENDANGERED UNIVERSITIES: THE WAY OUT
Efosa Kenneth Oghagbon lists measures to redress the anomalies in Nigeria’s university education
Recall, from 1960 – 1970, six Federal universities (first generation universities) were created in Nigeria. Out of these, five were in the geographical South and one in the North. This differential influenced the development thereafter of universities and tertiary education that are funded by the federal government of Nigeria. Note that of the six first generation universities, only University of Ibadan and University of Lagos were actually initiated by the federal government. The others were regional in origin; Ahmadu Bello University was by the Northern region government, while University of Ife (Western region), University of Nigeria (Eastern region) and University of Benin (Midwest region). They were however taken over by the federal government in 1975. The import of this action by the federal government on the overall university education story in Nigeria is a subject for another. But it led the way for creation of more institutions over the years till this day, by the federal government.
The country Third National Development Plan (1975 – 1980) made provision for the establishment of additional four universities, but this was altered for creation of seven institutions. These newly created universities during this Plan are; Universities of Calabar, Ilorin, Jos, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt and Ado Bayero University, Kano. Out of these seven universities, otherwise referred to as second generation universities, five were located in the geographical North and two in the South. Furthermore, during this period the federal government took over the first generation universities, thus bringing the total 13 universities under the management of the federal government with obvious attempt to equalize their distribution between the geographical North and South of the country.
Third generation universities in the country were established 1980 – 1990, and these are the Federal Universities of Technology in Owerri, Makurdi, Yola, Akure and Bauchi. The geographical distribution of the created third generation universities showed three in the North and two in the South. Thus, by the end of 1990, the federal government established 18 universities in Nigeria, out of which nine located in the North and nine in the South. The manner of creation suggests that the factors underpinning their evolution were more politically influenced rather than needs predicated on skills distribution or national growth and development gaps analyses. This pattern must have opened the flood gate for creation of States universities which has continued to this day.
The federal government having led the way in wanton creation of universities, the creation of States in Nigeria, fueled the craze for establishing same for their people. Each created State wanted to have a university, following footsteps and political blueprint for such endeavor, led by the federal government examples. Without a doubt, records show that the first-generation universities were acclaimed centres of excellence in the 60s and 70s and were so globally recognised. These pride of place institutions naturally led to very keen competition among prospective students, and only the best were admitted into them. This situation was made worse with the economic boom of the 70s, which led to the Udoji awards thus making money easier. As a result, there was a large movement of youths from rural to urban areas for white collar jobs. Consequently, there was pressure for the establishment of more universities to train “our people” to share in the national cake.
The emphasis then, and even now, should be to ascertain the sectoral needs of the country for certain skill sets, create institutions and programs that will target and plug identified gaps. Neither were these gaps identified, evaluated nor policies derived to address them. Universities which should have been asset in such regards lacked focus to contribute to national development issues. The failure of university system in this regard and others of national interest are due to many factors, as discussed below.
The mass of Nigeria youths has in large number over the years sought university education, irrespective of capacity to undertake it, because it is seen by a section of society, students and their parents as a means to government employment, money in government and status symbol. This wrong perception is aided by government weak emphasis on university management in line with needs assessment of the national economy. All these added to significant pressure on government and its actors to provide this level of education for all and sundry. To beat entry to our centres of excellence, the federal government created the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The Board introduced standards killing items such as federal character, catchment areas, disadvantage states, et cetera. These factors provided avenues for circumventing standards, leading to prospective students obtaining letters from government and its functionaries, in order to gain admissions, they do not merit. In countries where education meet set goals and objectives, individual universities set their standards for admission to respective programmes.
The import of all these is that we are missing the point emphasised by an earlier US President, when he said, “We cannot always build our future for the youth, but we can build our youth for the future”. Education is the only way to build our youth for the future, our future. Nigeria can no longer emphasise university education for employability of graduates, but now we should focus on these graduates, creating employments, instead. To ensure these for the good of all, standards must be emphasized without any iota of ambiguity.
The present unenviable state of university education in Nigeria is not due to the exclusive mismanagement of the sector by the federal government, ab initio. Over time, it is now clear that all other stakeholders of the sector have contributed in various measure to the abysmal status of university education in the country. Beside the federal government, states government have turned the establishment of universities to mere community projects. Sadly, most of these institutions are sited not in places well thought out in terms of ease of access, capacity of host location, functionality and security of the environment, and proximity to similar industries, but solely for political gains. States government concern is who is from the locality and what further gains can be garnered therefrom, subsequently.
In addition to this, parents and students have lost respect for standards requirement, and will do anything to secure university admissions including pushing for a local institution to be established just to have a certificate to access government employment, and maybe have a slice of the “national cake”. Little wonder that students and parents have stepped up their nefarious activities to involve dubious academics by bribing and gifting them for un-earned marks and certification. Such untoward characters in our citadel of learning who have made university certification lose its pride of achievement, have also taken their inglorious manners to outside the campuses where they have become stooges of politicians, and even spy on their colleagues who dare to teach independence of mind and opinions, morals attainment, and academic excellence and probity, to students and colleagues. Often times, these academicians whose main duty is to develop our youths for our future, are tagged wrongly or are denied their working tools, right environment and dues, just to arrest their independence of mind and opinion. Sadly, to the detriment of all including the public which sits on the sideline!
Against common expectation, I will leave the issue of funding to the last bit, as I believe it is not the fundamental reason for the deplorable state of our ivory towers. To begin addressing the solution towards revamping and refocusing our university education, all erring parties must accept their roles in the stink. The bulk of it is due to our governments, without a doubt and they know it, even if they withhold public acknowledgment of their role in it.
As a starting point, government must begin to discuss and implement desired policy changes. I reckon immediately that universities must be allowed free rein to determine and implement their admission examinations and processes, individually. What should be common to all is a general benchmark of credit passes in English and Mathematics for admissions. This implies that Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board should be scrapped from midwifing universities admission in the country. The organisation’s role has more than anything, douse standards and encourage mediocrity in our universities. However, JAMB can be merged with the National Examination Council (NECO), since the latter may benefit from the astute administrative management of the former. That way, feared job losses which will cause politicians some headaches, can be ameliorated.
The regulatory oversight of National University Commission (NUC) should be deepened, to ensure common standards across our university education spectrum. This organization is needed now more than before. The marked differences in the quality of graduates from different universities in workplaces and industries in Nigeria, attests to the need for NUC to do more. The observed university dependent quality variation from one university to another, is obvious from undergraduate to doctoral levels outcomes. This is unacceptable in present day Nigeria. Furthermore, NUC should encourage programmes and curricula that deepens developmental education thus improving national growth and international relevance. It is hope that the Commission may wish to dissipate less energy on phenotypic pursuits like ranking. Ranking should be icing on the cake, not the substance.
The selection of University Vice-Chancellors should be left to University Senate. The Senate knows its members and will ensure the best is selected despite putative ethnic coloration that may occur, particularly in State universities. Over time this will fizzle out, especially as NUC continue to insist on national and international spread among academic staff. It may be helpful if the Commission puts a mandatory percentage of 10% or more of academics must come from outside the geographical zone of the university and be on the payroll of university. The government should only be responsible for appointment of Chairman and external members of Council. It will help a great deal if the Chairman/Chairperson of Council is a retired or current Professor of academic. The employment of Chairpersons who have never been in academia have not augur well for universities because of certain idiosyncrasies of the system.
One other reason some universities have fared woefully is lack of accountability of responsibilities to their Visitor or Proprietor, as determined by set metrics which are related to institutional Vision and Mandate. The institutions mandatorily have Strategic Plans which are updated every three to five years and are geared towards achieving predetermined Vision. Yet there is no government or independent system that monitors universities progression, stagnation or retrogression. Hence, there should be in place, an independent body or agent of Federal Ministry of Education that assesses universities on annual basis; for their contributions to national or sectoral development strategies, in very tangible indices achieved through research. All universities should have enterprise divisions and be able to demonstrate contributions to national growth and development plan, in concrete terms. Such metrics should be utilised to gauge how much government grant is accessible to the institution. This can be a major premise of ranking rather than many of those presently being hammered but of little relevance to national growth.
Sustainable financial supports should be provided to assist with managing university education sector. The success of TETFund is well known especially in the area of staff development and buildings provision, but the rampant interference of government in the Fund is inimical to education support and growth. It is the hope of many in academics that TETFund will spend more of its resources on functional tools and advance training in modern scientific equipment that will aid research, and enterprise, going forward. The ceaseless expansion of university numbers by Federal and State government is now a huge burden on the Fund. Though it is expected that this incessant establishment of universities for weak reasons will be curtailed, there is still need to device additional ways to generate funds for public universities. Suggested additional means include specific government grants which are tied to demonstrable sectoral development contributions by universities, private sector special university tax and phased increase in tuition fee of students. Regarding the latter point, parents should know ahead that tuition fee will increase by 10-15% annually, with a one-year grace period for implementation. By so doing they will factor in the extra cost into their daily or annual expense, so as not to deter the poor from educational pursuit, to which they may make outstanding contributions.
Creation of a well-planned, developed and managed technical and vocation education system, and rightly assigned spaces in our Civil and Private Services, will reduce the aggressive desire to pursue university education by all, even by those without requisite capacity and self-initiated interests. My rough estimate is that about 30-40% of university students in Nigeria universities presently, do not have the mental wherewithal to accommodate the rigour of a proper university education. A workable model will be to adopt the UK National Vocation Qualifications (NVQ) model, with appropriate expertise, skills and remunerations. The right number of students in the university will improve the expected NUC students/teacher ratio, while creating alternatives for gainful engagement of youths.
The summary of this piece is, though we have made monumental errors in the management of Nigeria university education, there is still hope to redress all anomalies, if we can take the drastic decisions that it deserves. Education is and remains the fulcrum for all sectors making contributions to national growth and development. Choosing not to address it justifiably, is to seek for societal degradation. As Thomas Jefferson once said “enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day”.
Oghagbon is Professor of Chemical Pathology & Metabolic Medicine, Benue State University, College of Health Sciences, Makurdi, Benue State
