The salient issues embedded in the 189 recommendations by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and his team is not strange but glaring for all to see. What it did was that it elaborated on the fault lines within our university system which ASUU has over the years been calling on the authorities to fix; but unfortunately, successive governments have been led to believe that the association is mainly concerned about the welfare of its members. Take the issue of funding for instance. The N426.53bn budgeted for Education in the 2013 appropriation bill is about nine per cent of the total budget, previous budget hovers within this percentage. This is not close to the UNESCO recommended 26 per cent. We still have policy formulators who believe that it is “impossible” to budget such percentage without our house falling down, yet Ghana budgets 31 per cent of its annual estimates for education. Any wonder that the country is now the choice destination of Nigerians in search of quality education?
As with reports of such nature which are bound to be controversial because of some elements, the government set up a Presidential Review Committee on the Report where a Technical Committee that would review the recommendations and come out with workable solutions was raised headed by Prof. Yakubu, who also chaired the main committee. The committee has 12 Vice Chancellors: two each representing the six geopolitical zones in the country; one Commissioner for Education also from each of the six geo-political zones; the Federal Ministry of Education, (FME); National Planning Commission (NPC); National Universities Commission (NUC); and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The Chairman of the Committee and Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi said the decision to set up the review committee was to enable the proprietors of public universities in the country both at the federal and state levels, have actionable recommendations that would make enforcement a reality.
It will be appropriate to further review some of the recommendations here. Part of the committee’s recommendations says that overall administrative costs, including the cost of any out-sourced functions, such as cleaning and security, should not exceed 18 to 20 per cent and that managers, who failed to access and properly utilise their universities’ allocation of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) subventions for research, staff development and scholarships, conference attendance, publications, and so on, should be sanctioned.
The committee maintained that no university should be allowed to remain without a governing council, whose members are appointed purely on merit and to stay in office only as provided by the law and that, vice-chancellors should be transparent, accountable and result-oriented in their dealings (the federal government constituted governing councils two weeks ago). Moreover, all non-establishment positions created by some vice-chancellors; such as Personal Assistants and Special Assistants and any similar to these are to be banned in the university system and that the council of each university should ensure compliance. All abandoned projects are to be completed, or continued with before new ones are started by incoming vice-chancellors.
The explosion in undergraduates’ population on campuses which was not commensurate with facilities on ground also brought about some abnormalities. For instance, refectories, sporting complexes, convocation squares and other areas designated for other functions were converted into ‘lecture halls’ but the committee said varsities should revert to the status quo. Furthermore, it was revealed that less than 10 per cent of the universities have video conferencing facility, whereby less than 20 per cent use interactive boards while more than 50 per cent do not even use public address systems in their lecture halls.
On the regulatory body, government was advised to empower and re-strengthen the National Universities Commission, to enforce all accreditation criteria and ensure objectivity and patriotism in the conduct of its activities. To this end, any university that falsified records, hired equipment or mercenary staff just for accreditation purpose should be closed down for a minimum of five years. The report also called on the government and other funding agencies to support teaching, learning and research and university managers should pursue the mission, vision and core values of their institutions.
These objectives can be achieved – according to the committee – if and when universities train and produce all-rounded graduates and technical experts in the areas of Information and Communication Technology, high-tech engineering, medical sciences, agricultural sciences and natural sciences, among others. To strengthen the importance of universities to national development, the committee recommended that government should get the appropriate power agency to put all Nigerian universities on dedicated electricity lines and be accorded priority consideration during distribution.
To ensure that all university academics have the minimum teaching qualification, the government would have to direct the appropriate regulatory agencies to issue a moratorium of five years, when all teaching staff in the university system are expected to have acquired their doctorate degrees and that while this is on, all new employments into academic position must meet the academic requirement of having, or pursuing their doctorate degrees while visiting lectureship should be regulated.
One of the most controversial recommendation raising dust at the moment is the section calling for the conversion of all non-teaching staff in Nigerian universities into the staff of Federal or State Ministry of Education with full control over their employment. This controversial recommendation has been seriously criticized by the non-teaching staff of universities. To them, the report is unfavourable, cruel and untenable, as they called on the government to jettison it, noting that non-teaching staff were strategic to the running of the university system.
I will reserve comments on this pending when the presidential review committee comes out with their recommendations, but meanwhile the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) threatened to go on strike to stop the implementation of the report. The association accused the Federal Government of insincerity in the payment of its members’ allowances. At the forefront of this allegation is the association’s Federal University of Technology, Akure branch Chairman, Mr. Benedict Chukwuma, who said the NEEDS report was targeted at retrenching non-teaching staff of the nation’s public universities. According to him, the association is rejecting the report because it aims at downsizing members of the association.
Chukwuma is of the opinion that the transfer of non-teaching staff to federal and states ministries of education “was made in bad fate and therefore leaves much to be desired.” Preempting the adoption of the recommendation, the Joint Action Committee of the non-teaching staff met with Senator Pius Anyim, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, where it submitted its reaction to the report.
There is little doubt that this report makes a very depressing reading and calls our sanity as a nation to question. Reflecting on it I discovered that mediocrity has dealt us a massive blow than we previously thought. How do we expect to develop when our citadels of higher learning are nothing short of glorified secondary schools? How and when did we descend this low and how do we expect to hold our heads high in the comity of 2st century nations when our graduates are half baked? How in God’s name do we hope to compete in a technologically driven world when some of our graduates have not even touched a computer!? Most of our policy formulators travel to other countries and institutions to “understudy” their systems, what have they been “understudying” over the years? Yet they would be the first to shout themselves hoarse whenever the depressing ratings of our universities are released.
While it took years for us to get where we are today, taking the right step to correct these anomalies should start immediately and the political will to back it up should be there. Leadership is all about boldness in doing the right thing even if it may be painful and unpopular, we must fix our university system if we want to truly develop. The ball is now on the court of the review panel, we are waiting anxiously for their recommendations as we sift the NEEDS from the needs.
