Category: Education

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has expressed his resolve to substantially address the problems facing the educational system in the country. While doing this, the government must also be mindful of available resources, while trying to avoid unnecessary spending. But this cannot be achieved without the input of federal lawmakers. In just six months of legislative action, the House of Representatives has tabled bills seeking to establish 95 tertiary institutions. However, the constant request for establishment of federal tertiary institutions by the lawmakers is giving stakeholders in the sector course for concern, TONY AKOWE writes in this analysis.

IN 2021, while serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, cautioned against members bringing to the floor of the House, bills seeking to establish one institution and agency or the other. In his argument, this puts a lot of burden on the government in the area of funding. He said then that those sponsoring such establishment bills must be able to say where the funds will be drawn from.

He noted: “At a time of reduced revenue, with pre-existing and worsening infrastructure deficits requiring significant investments, we cannot afford to keep establishing more institutions that impose a permanent liability on government income. I am not unmindful of the realities that often necessitate such legislation, yet we cannot ignore the facts that lie before us. Let us work together to reform and strengthen the institutions already in existence, and remove those no longer fit for purpose. I believe most sincerely that this is the pathway to a legacy that we can all be proud of.”

House members’ bills rise

Despite this warning, members never stop sponsoring such bills even when the President fail to sign them when passed into law, thereby making nonsense of the efforts and resources put into the passage. While a few of such bills got presidential assent, a vast majority of them either did not make it out of the National Assembly when passed by the House because of non-concurrence by the Senate. Arguably, some of the bills never made it out of the Assembly because of rivalry between the Senate and the House as many lawmakers saw such establishment as status symbol in their constituencies.

At another plenary, Gbajabiamila called for stringent conditions for establishment of universities in the country, to ensure high standard. He believed then that stringent condition will prevent the proliferation of universities in the country. He said: “There is a balance between demands by constituents and what is good when we know what is right. I think this matter will be resolved when we pass the National University Commission (NUC) bill, where perhaps, we can make establishment of universities more stringent. Otherwise, you will run into a situation where a state government or whoever will just come, get a building or three buildings together and say they want a university”. He said the stringent measures will be in place until such a time when the government is no longer funding universities; then you can have 200 in a state. But, he did not get the support of his colleagues, especially his deputy, Ahmed Idris Wase. Wase had argued then that many lawmakers have promised their constituents that they would attract tertiary institutions to their areas. Ndudi Elumelu, who served under Gbajabiamila as Minority Leader also disagreed with him saying lawmakers were under pressure from constituents to establish university.

He said: “In my opinion, I think it is not wise to shut down every voice or every member on this floor as it relates to sponsoring a bill for the establishment of either college of education or polytechnic or university in their various communities. I said this because when you go to the constituencies and you are talking to the constituents, most often, the first thing they ask you is:  ‘Why are you not bringing any school to your constituency?’ When you say it is not possible and they see your colleagues sponsoring same bills for the establishment of universities, it becomes a negative for you as an individual who is representing them. So, whether it is assented to by the President or not, it is not the issue. The issue is that member is able to show that he has the interest of his or her constituents at heart.”

House members’ introduce new bills for 95 tertiary institutions.

Under the leadership of Abbas Tajudeen, the 10th House of Representatives has already proposed the establishment of about 47 new federal universities across the country. The House is also considering various bills to establish about 32 Federal Colleges of Education, 11 Federal Colleges of Agriculture and five Federal Polytechnics in addition to the already existing institutions.

The Nation’s finding revealed that the bills are part of about 962 bills passed by the House for first reading in its first six months of its inauguration.  Currently, there are 45 Federal Universities, 22 Federal Medical Centre, 27 Federal Colleges of Education and 40 polytechnics across the country. The Nation discovered that some of the bills, which were passed during the Ninth Assembly, but either did not get concurrence from the Senate or not signed by the President, have either been reconsidered and passed or are currently awaiting consideration by the House. Several others are awaiting debate on the general principles and passage for second reading when the House resume from its Christmas break. The universities being considered include conventional universities, Universities of Science and Technology, Universities of Agriculture, Universities of Medical Science, University of Sport, Aviation among others. In addition to these conventional institutions, the House is considering various bills to establish colleges of vocational studies and skill acquisition, colleges of entrepreneurial studies, cancer research centres among others.

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Incidentally, Speaker is leading other members in seeking for new federal institutions. He is pushing for the establishment of the Federal University of Technology, Kaduna. The bill seeks the conversion of Kaduna Polytechnic to a federal university. Similarly, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, wants a Federal University of Medical and Health Sciences located in his constituency of Bende in Abia State among others. While addressing members of the House before embarking on the Christmas break, Tajudeen disclosed that the House received and considered 962 bills, 500 motions and 153 petitions in six months. According to the Speaker, 120 of these bills have passed the second reading and are currently undergoing further review and refinement to address some of the concerns raised during the debates. He said 120 bills have been referred to committees for in-depth analysis.

Concerrns mount over new requests

However, those, who oppose the establishment of new tertiary institutions are more concerned about the standard of such public institutions in the face of poor funding for existing ones. Interestingly, the issue of poor funding has been at the centre of several industrial actions in the nation’s educational system and poor ranking globally. In 2012, a NEED assessment by the House of Representatives revealed that federal institutions, especially the universities were suffering from inadequate, dilapidated and overstretched facilities, lending credence to claims by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the 2008 ASUU/FGN agreement on the need to revitalise the universities. Under the agreement, the government was to pump about N1.5 trillion into the university system for infrastructural development within a period of three years, while working towards improving the annual budget to the sector. In spite of government’s failure to implement the terms of the agreement, leading to several strikes that has substantially altered the academic calendar, lawmakers are still pushing for more universities and other higher institutions which will also increase the funding need of government in terms of personnel and capital and overhead cost. The polytechnics have suffered worst fate, while colleges of education that are supposed to produce teachers for the nation’s primary schools are worst off.

ASUU, SSANU, others

condemn move

Unions in the academic sector have often opposed the establishment of new institutions, asking government to rather concentrate on funding existing ones. For example, during one of their outings in 2021, ASUU said the clamour for new universities was totally illogical. Abdussobor Salaam, Vice President (West), SSANU was quoted as saying: “it is totally illogical as far as we are concerned as Senior Staff of Nigerian universities, the establishment of universities has now become a charade, and it has started making a mockery of the entire university system. Because every politician wants to be seen as performing, and the only thing seen to be the index of performance is establishing a university in his domain”.

He was of the view that existing universities should be merged instead of creating new ones. Salam argued that there is no reason for two federal universities to exist in a state, while criticising state governments’ establishing new schools when they cannot meet their obligations, adding that the establishment of new universities creates more administrative expenses.

Others believe that before proposing or establishing new institutions, the status of existing ones must be considered. They argued that rather than angling for the creation of new institutions, the lawmakers should work towards improving the facilities in the existing ones, while expanding the carrying capacities of the institutions. They also want the lawmakers to focus on increasing oversight on existing schools. Some stakeholders also believe that while available institutions may not be enough to accommodate the growing population, the country is over-bloated in terms of available resources.

The ASUU also condemned the move, especially when the government is struggling hard to fund existing ones. During the Ninth Assembly, the National Assembly had several  of such requests for new higher institutions of various kinds, passing several of such bills into law. But less than 10 per cent of such institutions got approval for establishment. The Nation’s finding on the bills track in the House of Representatives revealed that in most cases, lawmakers request for the establishment of both universities, Colleges of Education, Colleges of Agricultures and other specialised institutions in one state or the other.

Chairman of ASUU at the University of Ibadan Ayo Akinwole warned the government against allowing itself to be cowed into establishing new universities when the government was still struggling to fund the existing ones. He said: “Thinking of adding 47 more universities, we begin to wonder what the objective is. The objective cannot be noble at all. If it is noble, you will see the seriousness in the way the government is handling the existing ones”.

He said the Federal Government is yet to fund, equip and maintain the quality of the existing 52 universities across the country.