Blackmail, scandal, and Augean stable of university education in Nigeria

RECENTLY, an undercover reporter blew open the scandal of overseas university education and its deleterious effect on our educational system and national development. But it is not as if we have not always been aware that many of the certificates brought home from abroad by our folks are sub-standard and do not compare to any acquired at home. For anyone who has travelled in neighbouring Benin Republic and Togo, many of the one-bedroom-flat universities there are ramshackle and the quality of education they provide leaves much to be desired. Same applies to some extent even in Ghana. Many simply go there to acquire certificates which they return here to flaunt for prestige purposes. Lazy students whose parents have excess money to spare prefer these so-called institutions where they get on a platter what serious students elsewhere sweat it out to acquire. I have seen graduates of some of those institutions who could not write a simple letter. One such graduate that I even tried to get enlisted in the NYSC failed serially to compose a simple letter. She claimed to have spent three years in a university in Benin Republic to study Business Administration! For years she failed to scale that simple hurdle but many of her classmates, who were well connected, according to her, got promptly admitted to the NYSC without even writing any letter! They must be working in some highbrow MDAs or blue-chip private companies by now!

The O’ Level result itself that many of these students used to gain admission is suspect. Another one that I knew attended the Nigerian campus of a university in Benin Republic and was admitted to study Nursing without Chemistry! Nigeria places much emphasis on paper qualifications; that is why. Politicians and entertainers are known to covet certificates they do not merit for prestige purposes and as status symbols. Persons who got awarded doctorate degree honoris causa are quick to begin to address themselves as “Doctor” All manner of institutions award doctorate degrees these days and in all manner of funny courses or disciplines. We must begin to de-emphasise the undue value we place on paper qualifications. We must also begin to encourage our students to study at home for many reasons. One: What education tourism costs this country is enormous. Such money ploughed into the education sector here will do the system a world of good. Two: The “Japa” syndrome is further accentuated by education tourism and the brain drain that this represents is an enormous depletion of the manpower needed for national development. Three: The cultural dimension of the loss suffered when our youths are disconnected from their roots, its values and traditions in early age cannot be over-emphasized. Many of them find it difficult to fit again into our society, even as they struggle to belong to the foreign culture and society that discriminates against them. They lose both ways.

But it is not all foreign education that is bad! Countries like China, India, etc. plan the direction and focus of the foreign education they allow their citizens to be exposed to. I am not sure you will find their students in Benin and Togo; studying what? Now that the Federal Government has woken up very late to tackle this menace, it has taken a knee-jerk approach, throwing the baby away with the bath water. A blanket ban on degrees from Benin, Togo, Kenya, Uganda and sundry other places is not the best approach. Are we saying there are no quality universities in these countries? What of the students in those universities whose standard compares favourably with ours? The innocent must not be allowed to suffer with the guilty. Corruption within the system here – at the Federal Ministry of Education and the NYSC – is at the roots of this problem. In Nigeria, for instance, we have the National Universities Commission that has the data on the universities here; a similar system should operate in other countries and we should be able to have a reliable database of quality universities in every country of the world. Such information should be on the website of the NUC, the Federal Ministry of Education, NYSC, etc. And such websites should be operational, updated regularly and not maintained only for the purpose of defending budgetary allocations at the National Assembly.

In those days, foreign students and lecturers flooded our universities; no more! I remember I was taught at Ife and Ibadan by foreign lecturers. Our universities were well rated internationally then. We have lost those lofty heights now. If a fraction of what we lose to education tourism is ploughed back into our universities, we shall begin to regain the glory of the past. Stemming the tide of brain drain is the first step in the right direction. Implementing the FG’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is next. It takes a Federal Government that sets its priorities right to do that. Unfortunately, the 2024 budget promises no such thing. The FG has correctly jettisoned IPPIS; next, it must follow it up with full autonomy to the universities and the universities must not abuse the autonomy so accorded. It is in this area of abuse that many are apprehensive of the capacity and capability of our universities to ride the storm. Corruption and abuse of office; conflict of interest and tin-God mentality are rampant in our universities. So, will autonomy, if and when granted, not go ga-ga like I once wondered?

Two recent events are worth recalling here. A professional colleague called me to complain that his son who graduated in Law from one of the universities run by a Christian Mission was yet to proceed to the Law School two years after. The boy was asked to go for the NYSC to while away time; he did. That done, there was no word on when he would be called to the Law School. There are hundreds of such Law graduates all over the place. I made enquiries. What is the problem? Is it over admission? Or is it Accreditation problems? Mum has been the word from the universities concerned. Should we expect or brook this kind of behaviour, even from a university founded by a Mission whose leader preaches and wears holiness like a badge? If gold rusts, what will iron do? I attend JAMB’s stakeholders’ meetings; the shenanigans of the egg-heads of our institutions of higher learning will shock you. But for the forthrightness of the JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the admission system will be nothing to write whole about. Between the vile elements engaged in examination malpractice and the university authorities playing monkey games with university admission and administration, I wouldn’t know who is more condemnable. Block one loophole, they immediately dig another! After parents paid through the nose and students burned the midnight candle to study and pass their examinations, why should they be denied the progression they deserve? Why are the Law graduates not going to the Law School? This is one instance when silence is not golden. So, the authorities concerned should speak out!

The other event is that of a stalker that chose, of all private universities, to stalk Achievers University, Owo. Who sent him? And what is the mission? Readers must be familiar with my write-ups on this institution. I have attended in a row at least its last five convocation ceremonies and have witnessed its meteoric rise and growth in leaps and bounds. Many will be surprised to know that Achievers University is the first private university in the old Ondo State (made up now of Ondo and Ekiti states). It commenced academic activities on 2 April, 2008. In this wise, it is senior to Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (owned by legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola), Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin (owned by business mogul, Chief Ade Ojo), Wesley University of Science and Technology and Sam Maris University, both in Ondo Town. Achievers University is listed as one of Nigeria’s 10 best private universities, out of 120. There is no way such a university should be so harshly and unjustifiably put down like a blogger, a Youth Corper for that matter, has tried to do. Whose interest is this blogger serving?

I was there last December at the university’s convocation when the Registrar, Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, Dr Faruk Umar Abubakar, impressed with the facilities on ground, increased the quota for Nursing students from 175 to 250. The acting VC, Professor (Mrs) Omolola O. Irinoye, is a professor of Nursing from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. I was pleasantly surprised to find my friend, Professor Bola Akinterinwa, on Achievers University staff list. A professor of Political Science, Akinterinwa was Chairman of the Editorial Board of This Day newspaper and Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, among others. Achievers University Faculty and facilities compare favourably with the best anywhere in the country.

I am happy not just because this university is in my home town; I also heartily identify with it because it has quality. Achievers held its 13th convocation last December. Since academic activities commenced on 2nd April, 2008, it has admitted students for 16 academic sessions and graduated 12 sets of students who have regularly participated in the NYSC scheme without any hitches. The 2023/2024 academic session ushered in the 17th set of undergraduates. Achievers has four Colleges: Engineering and Technology, Law, Natural and Applied Sciences; and Social and Management Sciences. It also has the faculties of Health Science, and Nursing Science. It runs postgraduate programmes in Accounting, Business Administration, Sociology, Criminology and Security Studies, Political Science, Computer Science, Chemical Sciences, Nursing Science and Medical Laboratory Science – all of these up to Ph. D. level. Recently the NUC gave the university approval to run 11 new courses with effect from the 2023/2024 academic session. These are: MBBS Medicine and Surgery; Doctor of Pharmacy; Doctor of Physiotherapy; B. Sc. Health Information Management; B. Sc. Procurement; B. Sc. Remote Sensing; B. Sc. Banking and Finance; B.LIS. Library; B, Sc. Ed. Biology Education; B. Sc. Ed. Chemistry Education; and B. Ed. Guidance and Counselling.

To arrest the scourge of worthless paper certificates from across the border as well as cause the drain on our resources through education tourism to abate, home-based universities doing well must be encouraged. Away with pull him down syndrome!