ADDRESSING THE CRISIS OF TERTIARY EDUCATION

Government should do more to stem human capital flight

Since the brain drain from Nigerian universities began in the late 1980s, there has been a progressive decline in the numbers and quality of academic staff in our university system. At first, many of the best brains left the universities to join the media and the private sector while some went abroad to take up teaching and research jobs in foreign universities, including on the continent. That this exodus seems to have heightened is why the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been crying out. Worst hit are the public universities which also witness an internal migration by many of their best lecturers who move to the better paying private universities in the country. The latest wave of migrations is tied to the ‘Japa’ syndrome as many brilliant young minds, driven by hunger and the arrogant stance of government at all levels, move abroad. 

Glaring evidence of the impact is in the abysmal quality of many of our graduates. Many are functional illiterates. The more debilitating impact is socioeconomic. Now that many of the medical personnel are relocating in droves, many of our hospitals are lacking in critical personnel. Besides, the foreign exchange cost of elite Nigerian children studying abroad is a significant part of the drain from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). More disturbing is that many the children being educated in foreign universities at great cost are not heading home after their studies. They are staying out to add value to advanced economies. The question now is, how do we address the problem?  

Last year, President Bola Tinubu pledged that his administration would work towards full university autonomy. While that may be one of the solutions, the leadership of ASUU seems out of tune with the current realities. A former lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife who is currently a Senior Fellow for African Studies at the American Council on Foreign Relations, Ebenezer Obadare recently posed some questions: “How can ASUU insist on ‘autonomy’ and at the same time maintain that the federal government pick up the tab for the running of the universities? Why should university faculty spread across 36 states be paid the same salaries even though they teach different things and live and work in different social circumstances? And why should a single union be the one to negotiate on their behalf?”      

The issue of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which seems to have been resolved is a case in point. We agree with ASUU that there is nothing wrong with a university lecturer trading his knowledge in two or three universities and getting rewarded in the process as it is done in many countries. The challenge of course is that beneath all the sabre rattling is the issue of transparency and accountability. Meanwhile, most of our lecturers that teach and get paid in different universities usually abandon their primary responsibilities. That cannot be an acceptable practice.  

Going forward requires critical stakeholders in the education sector joining in the efforts to find a lasting solution to what has become a perplexing national challenge. But the federal government must take the initiative so that we can collectively come up with ways to reposition tertiary education in the country. A less anti-intellectual attitude by government, as well as a conscious involvement of universities in governance and public policy and development endeavours will help. Beyond granting autonomy, there is need for a pragmatic solution to the problem of tertiary education so that we can stop the brightest and best of our academics from leaving the country for greener pastures abroad.