More universities, more problems
The other day, the Federal Executive Council approved the establishment of four new universities. Although they are privately owned, but they nonetheless increased the number of universities we have in the country to about 200. Public and privately owned universities now have an almost equal number. With private universities having over 70 presently, this means it will go up as government continues to process pending applications. For public universities, virtually all states now have state universities. Some have more than one. The Federal Government equally has a university each in all the states. Some states are primed to have more than one federal university soon. Specially owned universities like those by our armed forces are springing up. They could be called federal universities. The Defence Academy, Army University, Navy or Admiral University and Police University are all special universities that are coming on stream.
Establishing a university is one thing, running them properly in terms of human and material resources is another! This is the crux of the matter. Little wonder as we speak, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has been on strike since November till now. The earlier thought last week that the strike will be called off, has since been dashed. This is in spite of the federal government’s release of some funds, about N15.4 billion, for payment of salary shortfalls and a promise that the already approved N20 billion for payment of earned allowances for university lecturers would be released afterwards. More telling however is while ASUU is still on strike; the National Assembly has proposed that 50 more institutions of higher learning be established across the 36 states of the federation. According to reports, while some of the bills seeking the establishment of the institutions have already been passed, others are still at various stages of enactment. What the lawmakers may not have given due consideration before arriving at the decision to create that many tertiary institutions in the country is surprising.
The fact that Nigeria already has so many universities that are struggling to stay afloat should bother anyone desirous of establishing new one. Poor funding, which is one of the reasons ASUU goes on strike frequently, is not considered became establishing new schools should include how they will be funded. With no standard, modern functioning laboratories, libraries stacked with outdated books, and moribund infrastructure, lack of funding is the reason most of our universities are now a collection of buildings where unemployable graduates are produced in their tens of thousands at the end of every academic year.
Lack of funding is also the reason no reasonable research is going on in any institution in the country. The lawmakers also did not consider the shameful fact that apart from the University of Ibadan which is ranked in 801st position, none of the 43 federal, 47 state and 75 private Nigerian universities is listed among the top 1000 institutions in the World University Ranking of 2018.
Apart from other factors, what this means is that we have institutions that do not meet the necessary standards, yet they churn out graduates every year. To address the situation, ASUU has continuously stressed the need for more funding for the universities. As a matter of fact we do not even have enough teachers in the university system. With the way we approve new universities, before long, we shall run out of teachers, not to talk of qualified ones. Secondly, while it is true that there are a lot of candidates on the waiting list yet to be absorbed into the system, the craze for university education needs to be curbed. Otherwise, what we will have is a lot of garbage in, garbage out. The universities are not solving our societal or national problems. That should worry us as a people. Instead, we are more interested in our “interest”, mostly partisan.
This craze to create and cite universities for partisan reasons must be stopped. Whether it is done by the executive or the legislature, it does not matter. Talks by Transport Minister to cite a school in his village and another in the president’s village is questionable.
The same way most of the approvals sought for by members of the National Assembly have been about their villages or constituencies. If we must start a university, it must because we need to. Therefore, the creation and citing of new universities should not be for political reasons. On its part, the National Universities Commission, NUC, which is charged with the responsibility of advising government on financial needs of universities as well as the handling and planning of a balanced and coordinated development of university education in Nigeria, needs to start taking these tasks seriously. As a governing body for all universities, it should set the standard and ensure that the same applies to every institution whether federal, state or private.