FG’s moratorium on establishment of tertiary institutions

A few days ago, the Federal government announced that it has pressed the pause button on the bewildering speed at which tertiary educational institutions are being “urinated” by the federal authority for seven years. While pronouncing the policy at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday August 13, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, explained that the action was informed by the fact that, unlike before now, the issue of access is not much of a challenge but rather the matter of building the capacities of the existing ones and making them much more efficient. He put it lucidly thus: “What we are witnessing today is duplication of new tertiary institutions and a significant reduction in the carrying capacity of each institution and degradation of both physical infrastructure and manpower.” He said further, ‘If we do not decisively act, it will lead to marked decline in educational quality and undermine the international respect that Nigerian graduates command.’ Before the Federal authority also became neck deep in over proliferation of tertiary educational institutions, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had stridently called on the federal and state governments to apply the break for the dangers the trend portends. However, believing that access was desirable then and that it could be pursued with moderation, some well-meaning Nigerians, including yours sincerely supported further expansion. This was reinforced by the country‘s huge population and our thirst for higher education which has accelerated our cross-border search for higher education at humongous cost.

Since this policy has been pronounced, some commentators have seen it as another harsh policy coming from Tinubu’s administration. However, methinks it is not for the following reasons, parts of which have been mentioned by the Minister, but which I will further elaborate and emphasize. One, the break is desirable because the processes of establishing them have been over-politicised. As the minister has revealed, more than 200 bills on creation of new tertiary institutions are pending in the National Assembly. Proposing a bill for the establishment of a tertiary educational institution seems, perhaps, the easiest legislative duty today in Nigeria for a lawmaker.

The much-promised innovations in legislative duties by the Speaker of the House of representatives seem long in coming. Every constituency if not ward wants a federal tertiary educational institution, As a result of this political pressure, the processes and criteria of establishing them have been abused and breached thereby leading to unnecessary duplication with all its adverse effects on resources allocation and    utilization, We therefore need to pause and relate the quest for access to the available resources so that we don’t slide irredeemably in quality

Two, this moratorium will also give us the time to carry out the desirable reforms of the rots, structural deficiencies, funding and mismanagement that have bedeviled our tertiary institutions today. For example, the minister cited the case of an institution in the North where the staff strength is 1,200 as against students population of about 800. Indeed, it is not only in the North that we have this trajectory, it abounds all over the country. Hence, this policy should not be perceived as anti-North. In fact, many of the tertiary institutions especially polytechnics and colleges of education with low students enrollment but higher staff strength, still, against their need, have more non-academic staff on their nominal rolls than the much needed academic staff In another example, an institution in the South with student population of about 300 and staff strength of about 800,  allegedly has 26 Chief Accountants among other categories of accountant on the Accountant cadre, It is of course sad to note that in both Federal and tate-owned institutions,  people are ironically employed into joblessness, In recruitment, conditions of service, scheme of service, merit and federal character principles have all been replaced with the whims and caprices of the political class, the traditional title holders and the bureaucratic job merchants.

Third, we need this moratorium to enable us to convene stakeholders’ conferences to review and reset the criteria for the establishment of new tertiary institutions in the country in national interest. No doubt, we also need this conference to discuss international best practices on the matters of university autonomy, funding and personnel management and prepare grounds to key into them.

In conclusion, it is true that we are in a democracy. As such, the public can make demands on the national assembly and the executive duly elected by it. However, for the sake of national development, equity, and fairness, it is imperative that policymakers and policy carriers should always endeavor to balance national interest with political discretion in matters of public policy.

Dr. Adebisi writes from Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin Ondo State

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