Professor Oladiran Famurewa is the vice chancellor of Kings University, Odeomu, Osun State. While expounding the rots that characterise the nation’s educational sector, he opined that the decadence the knowledge sector displays is a reflection of the larger society. OLAMIDE ENIOLA brings the excerpts.
How do you see the education sector in Nigeria over the years, in view of the multifaceted challenges that have continuously confronted the country?
The challenges are man-made. I am sorry, that is the bitter truth. We have not been sincere with ourselves; they are all self-inflicted pains. The peak of it is the incessant strikes which have almost killed the public institutions. Generally, our system of education mirrors the larger society. But because the private institutions are doing things differently, they are getting a different result. For instance, we resumed academic activities on 1 February, 2016 and our first set is graduating, by the grace of God in June/July this year, because there hasn’t been any disturbance. Several individuals have presented action blueprints, which have become difficult for government to execute.
Why do you think none of the Nigerian universities fall within the top rated globally?
Our attitudes are impediments and clogs in the wheel of progress for this nation, when it comes to education. For example, we do not believe in research. Some years ago, some of our friends would make jest of us for engaging in research, forgetting that most of what we have around us today are products of research. Must other people always solve our problems for us? Can’t we just sit down and think? While some scholars are daily bothered about finding solutions to problems, some are discouraging them.
Beyond that, we have wealthy individuals who neither establish learning institutions nor immortalise their names by funding scholarships. What Bank Anthony did with his will is what is helping Lagos State Teaching Hospital till today. If you give ₦100 million to a university today, your name will be immortalised. Look at Bill Gate and his wife for instance, I benefitted from their support in 2010, when I went to the U.S. for the first time, for two weeks. They provided the ticket and everything I, alongside others, needed for the training. The white would be the one to study malaria, when they are not the ones suffering from malaria?
Nigerian private universities don’t have access to TETFUND, how do you feel about this?
This is constituting a lot of limitations, I must say. This shows that the Federal Government is unwilling to assist private universities. Government needs to see how things are done in places, where we borrowed some of these ideas from. For instance, most universities in the United States are private, but the government gives them grant based on some conditions which the universities must meet. All of us are paying into this commonwealth; I mean the collections from tax payers. After all, the students in the private institutions are Nigerians; I don’t know why the government is denying assisting these institutions. Just like the Federal Government is not making any gains from the public universities, the individuals who set up this place are not making anything out of it either. The gain would have to do with having human capital development, and we are all doing the same business. So, I think government has to go back to the drawing board and have a rethink about helping these institutions grow fast.
In advanced countries, universities serve as the model of what the society should be and are organised in terms of good governance, vision, due process and transparency. Why is the situation different in this clime?
It still boils down to what we have been saying – our mentality and attitude. In time past, we cherished education, but today, what we cherish is just the certificate. Now, parents are particular about the course the child must study, not minding if the child has the capacity and interest in the course or not. In the past, no parent would do that. Our values have been eroded. Except we trace our way back. That’s why the Asians are better than us. They were also colonised, yet they never left their culture. They held to their values and that is why they are progressing today. We ‘borrow and steal’ all sort of cultures, not minding whether they fit into our traditions. We prohibit speaking our ‘vernacular,’ when other people from other climes conduct teachings in their vernacular. How would your children know your culture when they don’t speak their dialects? We have to be well-informed to make our education relevant to our needs. I think we need to go back to the drawing board and explore our culture.
Would you say some of the rots in the Nigerian educational sector are a reflection of the society or vice versa?
Seriously yes! This has come with the effect that we now have a society of humans fond of transferring liabilities and this is a terrible way of life. In recent times, I don’t pick the calls of some certain people because I know they’re calling to ask for money. They can’t make money, but they are ready to help you spend it. These are some of the reasons we have not developed. As certain things are good in our lives, so are others that are ugly about us. I am not saying people should not help, but let it be out of their volition. Because we don’t cut our cloth according to our coat, but according to our size, we are always short of resources. Some couples gave birth to children they don’t have the capacity and the resources to raise, and are now pushing them to relatives to help raise them.
Soyinka once advocated that Nigerian universities be shut for a whole year to re-organise towards reclaiming its glory. Has he not been justified, given the seeming rot in the nation’s varsity system?
How would you rationalise the involvement of university dons in election duties?
I think it is a good development, even though they are risking their lives. Look at those in the other part of the country, where somebody had to make the announcement under duress. And before the don did that, he might have been offered a bribe which he probably might have turned down, before being pressurised to announce the false result. I may be right; I may be wrong.
All the same, I think we will get there. It may be gradual. Rome was not built in a day. Sometimes, we are too much in a hurry, but sometimes, we are not also learning from history. We know where the western world went through. We saw all the pitfalls and we are also falling into the same errors.
and then