Our loss their gain

Agbo Agbo

After fixing my car recently, my technician asked me a question that I never expected from him. “Sir, how much will it cost me to send my son to a university abroad?” As a result of that simple question I had to stay an extra thirty minutes hearing him out on why he wants his son to attend a foreign varsity and not a local one.

“I was told that graduates from Nigerian universities remain jobless for years while their counterparts from foreign universities, upon their return home, get jobs easily” was the singular reason he wants to send his son abroad.

He said his son just wrote his SSCE and he has been saving to ensure he “travels out, even if it’s to Ghana, Togo or Benin Republic.” My attempt to convince him that there are still credible varsities in Nigeria fell on deaf ears. I had no choice but to take out time – in lay man’s language – to explain the process he would pass through for his son to study abroad.

As I drove back to the office I started reflecting and asking myself – over and over again – when and how we lost our education sector, especially the university system.

I went to the university at a time when tuition was free, throughout my five years stay – one year added due to the first ASUU strike – I paid less than N10, 000 to complete my tertiary education! I only took care of my personal needs and books. Like many in my generation, we owe the Nigerian tax payers a huge debt of gratitude for making it possible.

Consequent upon this, some of us are doing our best to impart the knowledge we acquired to the next generation that did not pass through the rigorous research regime we did.

I therefore try my best – within my professional capability – to take fresh graduates and train them in the art of communication, reporting, writing and morals. I’m glad today that it has not been in vain.

As a result of our collapsed system – our loss- some countries have stepped in to cash in on this and make it their gain. Even the most casual observer cannot fail to notice that Nigeria is now one huge “untapped” market for agents and marketers of foreign varsities.

I have attended lots of “education fairs” and in most instances one is inundated with all sorts of offerings and incentives, some realistic while others are simply outlandish. They include endless scholarship opportunities, work-study offers and fragmented fee payment schedules, opportunities for jobs, permanent residency if one so desires and a host of other “juicy” offers.

I’ve had course in the past to engage some agents, marketers or representatives of some of these institutions and it is amazing how a number of them turn out to be charlatans looking for unsuspecting parents and students to fleece. Because most parents – like my technician – want their wards to study abroad, critical question are unfortunately not asked. There are hidden charges which only pops up once the student is settled in.

I quite agree that we are in the knowledge era and knowledge has become an international commodity of sort, but I also hold the view that this ever-expanding international education market has benefitted immensely from Nigeria’s deeply troubled tertiary education sector. The evidences are manifold and there for all to see.

Like most things Nigerian, the quest for foreign education is in categories. At the top echelon are children of politicians, business moguls and the elites who prefer studying in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and some European Union countries.

In some of these countries, the fee is structured in ways where foreign students pay twice what citizens pay. The extra fees foreigners pay are used to subsidise the fees of at least two of the host country’s citizens.

Within this group, we also have politicians and businessmen who have the wherewithal to send their children to the best universities in the west no matter the cost. Others, because of corruption charges and the fact that they – or their children – cannot enter the west, make do with east European or Middle East countries. In these countries, questions are not asked as you can simply walk in with your money, no matter how dirty it is.

The next category is the upper middle class who send their children to universities which are not in the league of the Harvard’s of this world, but are equally credible nonetheless. Those in the lower middle class and those aspiring to enter that class make do with varsities in Ghana, Togo, and Republic of Benin.

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We still have those – like my technician – who don’t mind their children attending a foreign “portakabin university” established by some “smart” Nigerians in these countries. It will astound most Nigerians that our citizens form 80 percent of student and lecturer population in some of these institutions. Note that in all these institutions, fees are usually paid in dollars, or in some instances, in pound sterling or Euro.

Mr. Brian Wilson, Programmes Director at British Council revealed at one of the education exhibition that 18,000 Nigerians were currently pursuing various undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Britain. Without doubt, I believe the figure will have risen since he made this revelation some years back.

This may be mere figures until we do the math then we will realise how dare our situation is. Remember also that we are talking here about just one country out of a host of others that Nigerians go in search of education. Let’s take £30,000 as the average amount spent by a Nigerian studying in the UK. The figure in Naira at an exchange rate of N447 would be N13.4million. If we multiply £30,000 by 18,000, it boils down to £540,000,000. Convert £540,000,000 to naira and you’ll get over N241 billion.

To me, the irony of the whole situation is this: Nigerians lampoon their country as a place where nothing works and a country without a future. But it is from this same country that the funds to sponsor students abroad come from. I know quite a couple of Nigerians who fund their home mortgages abroad from the money they earn in Nigeria, some even have families doing nothing abroad who are catered for with money earned from the home front. Can you imagine what would happen if these fund is injected into our local economy? However, this is issue for another day.

How did we get here? Brian Wilson echoed the minds of millions of Nigerians, when he advised the Federal Government to do more toward improving the standard of education in Nigeria. With more than 200 Universities offering less than 300,000 slots in a country where over one million candidates seek placements every year, many anxious parents with enough funds have been persuaded to seek alternative placements for their wards in foreign Universities. Some, after many years’ attempt to gain admission to a local university proved futile choose this option while others migrated because they could not scale the UME, and post UME hurdle.

However, where a particular parent sends his or her wards to depends on a combination of factors. While Universities in the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) are considered relatively safer for Nigerian students, the required fees are beyond the reach of many. Many American universities charge foreign students about $40,000 (N12.2million) annually.

Studying abroad undoubtedly has its merits, including opportunity to attend top-class universities in different cultural settings and, of course, brighter international career opportunities, but what about our home front? Unfortunately, much of the resources at our varsities disposal end up as recurrent expenditure – payment of salaries and spending on non-capital projects. The precarious situation is ever bogged down by poor funding as well as ill-conceived, inconsistent and outright failure of government policies. Research is almost nonexistent.

So what happens after we milk the cow (Nigeria) dry?