House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila has reiterated the need for the repositioning of tertiary education in Nigeria.
He said the current state of tertiary education in the country required drastic actions to make things work, if the future of the country is of any concern to Nigerians.
The Speaker spoke at the National Summit on Tertiary Education Reform organised by his office yesterday in Abuja.
At the event, critical stakeholders urged fellow Nigerians and the Federal Government to consider alternative means of funding tertiary education in the country.
They included former President Olusegun Obasanjo, top government functionaries, academics and members of the private sector with attachment to the Education sector.
Gbajabiamila said events of the last few months had shown that there is a need for a rethink about how to adequately equip and empower the Nigerian child in a globalised world.
He said: “Our cause is more than to seek solutions to the challenges of tertiary education in Nigeria. In fact, we are here today on a mission to save Nigeria…
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“Allow me …to speak the truth as I see it so that together we can agree on what we need to do to overcome. Time was when the tertiary institutions in our country were centres of excellence, comparable to the best institutions elsewhere in the world. There was a time when our brothers and sisters from across Africa and even farther away sought out our institutions, and we welcomed them in droves. That time is no more.
“It used to be that a student admitted to the university knew the date of their graduation and graduated on that day. And it once was that a career in academia guaranteed stable employment and an honourable quality of life. For the most part, all of these now exist as memories of a distant past. But it really wasn’t so long ago.”
Obasanjo stressed that tertiary education must be paid for.
The former President hailed Speaker for initiating Gbajabiamila’s Student Loan Bill as its passage into law would ensure that indigent students get an opportunity.
He also expressed scepticism over corruption issues that may thwart access to the loan by those who genuinely need it, thereby defeating the essence of the Law.
A former Vice Chancellor of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Prof. Hillary Edoaga, and a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Technology, Minna, Prof. Tukur Sa’ad, corroborated Obasanjo’s position.