The dwindling standard of education in Nigeria: The way forward (3)

Strikes

ONE major factor which is the cause of falling standard in our universities and afortiori responsible for our poor graduates among world universities is the incessant strikes by ASUU.

There was a reported gathering  of the Oxford University Community some few years ago. A Nigerian guest among the gathering had wanted to know when the University last had a strike action. As if the Vice Chancellor had not heard the word “strike” before, he whispered to the Registrar the questions posed by the Nigerian for assistance. The Registrar was himself more confused. In that confusion he said “strikes!!!,what do you mean? The last and only strike I can recall is the clash which our students had in 17… with the inhabitants of the Oxford town”.

In Nigeria, the matter is different. Hardly does a Semester pass-by without our public universities getting closed down either due to strikes by the lecturers or unrests by the students themselves. These are usually for the wrong reasons, or for no reasons at all.

It suffices to say that strikes dislocate the educational system, affect the moral and morals of students, lower the quality of education and degrees when teachers return to class months after they had vacated it, only to compress the syllabus and increase the cost of education. I am not aware of any country where university lecturers take so much joy in embarking on strikes, even on matters which do not affect their terms of employment or university, or matters which by negotiation can be resolved, regardless of the consequences on the lives of the children for whom they stand in loco parentis. Some striking lecturers even go to the extent of criminally instigating students to join them.

Fortunately, in my first term as Pro Chancellor of University of Lagos, the professors of old breed were able to retrain young ones and we had a relatively strike free university.

Indiscipline

Aside from the factors earlier identified, there is no doubting the fact that “indiscipline remains one of the major factors responsible for the precipitous decline in the quality of education in Nigeria. This manifests itself in different forms. Cases of unethical and unprofessional practices, which are unbecoming of university teachers, such as immorality some of which we have had to deal with recently; indiscriminate admission of unqualified or unfit candidates; examinational malpractices; absentee lecturers some of whom were dismissed lately; fraudulent and criminal activities, some of which we have reported to the police; disrespect for constituted authority and polarisation of academia; cases of plagiarism; late release or non-release of examination results, to me this is a very serious misconduct. Many lives and future or students have adversely hampered by deliberate late release or non-release of results for months or even for a year. In some cases, examinations scripts are not marked at all or concealed. By this, some hapless students could not report at NYSC camps, prospective lawyers are denied admission to the Law School while many promotions are delayed in the process.

Cultism

Student cultism is perhaps one of the greatest problems confronting our tertiary institutions today in Nigeria. In recent years, this plague has assumed a frightening and deadly dimensions. It is so worrisome that the possibility of its spread to secondary (and even primary) schools in the country is enough to give every caring parent a cause to lose sleep.

The term “cult” has been defined somewhere as “a group of people engaged in a form of ritual usually under oath, binding the members to a common cause”. Such groups of individuals operate covertly in furtherance of their objective which is usually detrimental to the interest of others. Thus a cult is a group of people which places a secondary need in the position of a primary need. In other words, any group of people that places emphasis on secret initiation or rituals for the purpose of group-help, group protection but whose activities are clandestine in nature is a cult.

Why cultism?

For us to appreciate the enormity of this worrisome phenomenon on our campuses, it is vitally necessary to revisit the origin of cultism in Nigerian Universities. 

The first recorded evidence of cultism in tertiary institutions in Nigeria revealed that it call began in 1952 at the University of Ibadan when a group of seven people which included Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and Emeritus Professor Olumuyiwa Awe founded the Seadogs Confraternity (popularly known as Pyrates) with three principal objectives: (i)  To fight against moribund conventions colonial mentality in the University System, the compulsory wearing of formal dresses to the cafeteria, idea of students behaving as overlords and per British behaviour, (ii) To fight for humanisation ideas to revive the soul in the earn pus, to establish discipline, orderliness and orientation to laudable national objectives, (iii) To fight against corruption, tribalism and cultism.

The above, ex facie are laudable objectives given the prevailing circumstances of 1952 at the then University College, Ibadan. But today, the story is different. Pyrates Confraternity had effectively become one of the major cults terrorizing our campuses, until the top hierarchy of the confraternity banned its existence on (university campuses). Their founders, patrons and members, however still exist off-campus.

Reasons why cultism exists

Some of the known reasons why cultism exists in our institutions of learning (especially universities) are as follows:

• Long years of military rule and its attendant brutalisation of the civil populace

• The employment of discretionary admission which favours less brilliant students but prejudices the interest and chances of brilliant and talented ones.

• Presence of non-students in the halls of residence of higher institutions which makes it easier for extraneous forces to employ them for diabolical ends

• Access of students to dangerous and sometimes sophisticated leather weapons.

• Readiness of some university administrators to employ cult members for their own selfish ends like suppression of vocal and dynamic student leaders

• Existence of fear as a result of lack of security on campuses

• Inadequate accommodation leading to over-crowding and all manners of sharp practices.

• The course system which allows a student to stay in school for a longer period than necessary and which makes him to lose focus and thereby becoming “professional” student in the process.

To be continued….

AARE AFE BABALOLA, OFR, CON, SAN, LL. D (Lond.)

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