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Tag: Nigerian Universities

  • Five Nigerian universities that banned sign-out ceremonies

    Five Nigerian universities that banned sign-out ceremonies

    Sign-out, a celebration among final year students, is considered a university culture. This involves scribbling words on the students’ white clothes, marking their final moments on the campus.

    However, many have taken this ritual for granted, engaging in undignified practices.

    In Nigeria, some universities have officially banned sign-out celebrations for graduating students, citing concerns about discipline, safety, and the professional image of graduates.

    Here are five universities that banned signout ceremonies:

    1. Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK)

    Year of Ban: 2025

    UNIZIK banned all sign-out ceremonies indefinitely because the events often involve disorderly conduct, excessive partying, and activities that compromise the dignity of graduates. The administration aimed to ensure students graduate with decorum.

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    2. Federal University, Lafia (FULafia)

    Year of Ban: 2025

    Celebrations are now restricted to faculty-controlled areas only. Sign-out events were banned at the campus gate following a fatal tricycle accident. This was done to curb dangerous or disruptive behaviours often associated with large, uncontrolled gatherings during sign-out events.

    3. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), Lapai

    Year of Ban: 2024

    IBBU issued a full ban on sign-out activities because some students had engaged in messy and unsafe practices, including covering themselves in ink and writing on clothing, which were seen as undignified and potentially harmful.

    4. Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS)

    Year of Ban: 2023

    UDUS issued a ban on unauthorised ceremonies after reports of unruly student behaviour during previous celebrations. The administration emphasised that such actions compromise the institution’s reputation and the dignity of graduating students.

    5. Kaduna Polytechnic (KadPoly)

    Year of Ban: 2024

    KadPoly prohibited all sign-out celebrations, labelling the practice as uncultured. The administration highlighted that acts like covering oneself in ink or writing messages on clothes were contrary to the school’s values of discipline, safety, and professionalism.

  • What is going on in Nigerian universities?

    What is going on in Nigerian universities?

    Not knowing he was  only dealing with the very tip of a can of worms, I thought I have heard the very worst of the state of putrefaction in the Nigerian University system this past week when Osita Chidoka, former minister of Aviation and now Chancellor of the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, opened up on the details of a report by his centre.

    We would have to quote him at some length in an interview where he described Nigerian Universities as an embarrassment to the nation.

    Excerpts:”

    “Nigerian institutions are a very big embarrassment to the country. These are institutions that are going to breed the future leaders of Nigeria. Today, they are the bastion of opacity and lack of transparency. All over the world, we did a survey and just said, how much does the universities get? I am one of those who feel that our universities are poorly funded. And I was asking how much they really get and spend.

    To our chagrin, that information was not available, not on their website, not on surveys we sent out to the universities to find out.

    Then we decided to check out other African countries. From Kenya to Egypt to South Africa, all the universities had the information on their website. We knew how much they internally generated. We knew how much they got from grants. We knew how much they got from research funding. And we knew how much they got from government funding. All the universities got the majority of their recurrent funding from school fees. And then, of course, grants and research grants and other forms of income from alumni and co. But what we find interesting in Nigeria is that we are not able to attract funding to our universities. We are able to attract donations from people who come for doctorate degrees. And even that, there is no accounting for it. How much does it cost to train a graduate in Nigeria? How much do the universities get from the Federal Government or state governments? And how much do they get from internally generated revenue? That information is a black hole. Nobody knows. We do not know with clarity what is costing us. If you look at the whole amount of money the federal government budgets for education and for higher education, you would then be shocked at that level of public appropriation, some universities get as much as N35 billion, N40 billion from federal allocation yearly. Yet, there is no record of how that money is spent.

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    For the visitation panel that visits the universities, we can only see the reports from the Ministry of Education. We do not see it on the websites of the university.

    Compared to foreign universities, we see the strategic vision. We see the plan. We see their hostel accommodation, how much they want to bring in private operators and how much students pay for it. All that information creates the transparency that brings in more funding to the university. In Nigeria, the reverse is the case.

    I told former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega yesterday that when he brought in professors to become returning officers, we all shouted hurray. If I knew what I know today, that the universities themselves are not transparent, I would have known that the professors were going to be worse. Because our electoral system, like I said many times before, is messed up. And partly because the university professors who go as returning officers have no history of transparency. So when we bring them to public office, they come to public office the same way they run the universities. We are in a back cycle”.

    I did not know I was in for a greater shock until I came across the following shocking, and thoroughly distressing, WhatsApp post by somebody we would simply describe as an insider.

    Again I shall quote him/her verbatim so that those who have primary responsibility for education, especially tertiary education – the National Assembly, which should see its responsibility far beyond oversight during which University Administrators are harassed beyond limit, state governments, as proprietors of some, and the federal government which seems to delight more in the approval of more Universities which stand no chance of being better rum than the poorly funded, nearly moribund, ones to which they are being needlessly added.

    Titled: University Education in Nigeria is Collapsing”, which I described elsewhere as a horror story, it reads as follows:

    1. Being a university lecturer in Nigeria is no longer sustainable. Every day is a struggle just to eat, pay rent, and survive. Teaching is what I know and love, but the financial strain is making it impossible to do my job effectively.

    2. When I started teaching over seven years ago, I could afford to drive to school daily in a family vintage fuel efficient car that I subtly colonized, pick up colleagues from their homes, and never asked for fuel money. Today, I can barely afford public transport to work. I now go to work twice a week, if I manage.

    3. Government officials say prices are coming down. Yes, I completely agree. But do we have money to buy it? No. Before, while growing up in a middle-income family, my parents stocked food at home, beans, yam, okpa etc. at these times. Now, you can’t even afford to buy when prices drop. Survival is day to day.

    4. One illness in the family and you plunge into poverty. Rent increases annually. Inflation is destroying us, but the government pretends not to notice. No policies protect ordinary Nigerians. It’s hardship upon hardship.

    5. I once considered sleeping in my office to save transport costs, but senior colleagues warned me. If anything happens, I could find myself explaining things I shouldn’t have to. So, I keep struggling, like many others.

    6. We are so understaffed that I teach five courses in a semester. But the real tragedy? The students.

    They are not being taught. Some barely see a lecturer thrice in a semester. Their degrees are losing value because the system is collapsing.

    7. I recently supervised an exam for 400-level students. Out of 145, about 60% are on student loans. They are paying, but are they getting their money’s worth? No. They graduate with certificates but without knowledge.

    8. HODs come to work once a week. Deans, principal officers, same thing or at most trice. Those who come Monday won’t come Tuesday. Those who come Tuesday won’t come Wednesday. Academic efficiency is dead. But who do you blame? They all have families

    9. A three-unit course that should have three hours weekly barely gets one hour in two or three weeks. I teach five courses so how do I cover my syllabus? You want to teach 400-level students, but they don’t know 300-level material and as much as I pity them, I can only confuse them the more.

    10. After the eight-month strike, owed salaries were paid in bits, spread over months. Inflation wiped out what little we had. Most other service rendering profession adjusted by adjusting their prices. Lecturers can’t. If they take money for textbooks, handouts or worse, grades, it’s a scandal.

    11. We are churning out graduates who are with all due respect, educated illiterates. In 20 years, this country will be in crisis because of it. The government must act now. This is not about lecturers alone, it is about the future of Nigeria.

    12. I asked my students how many want to be lecturers. None. They don’t want to be like me. They see no dignity, no reward, no future in teaching. Universities should attract the best, but now, teaching is a last resort.

    13. Once, first-class students were happy to be retained. Now, even if you force them at gunpoint, they won’t stay. Those who do are mocked for “lacking ambition.” This is the death of academia in Nigeria.

    14. Some lecturers now earn more from side businesses than from teaching. When that happens, even if salaries were to ever increase, they won’t return to full-time teaching and give their best to research. A generation of lecturers is being lost.

    15/ Nigerians are paying the price for necessary government reforms, but not everyone is affected equally. Some are shielded. Meanwhile, the government ignores the suffering of its people. Rent hikes (which state governments should tackle), inflation, job losses, no protection.

    16. This is me joining the #30daysrantchallenge against both the federal and state governments: feel the pulse of the people. University education is collapsing. If we continue like this”.

    It is note worthy that things have not always been like this because some absolutely impeccable individuals were at the helm of affairs: the likes of Professors H. A Oluwasanmi at Ife, Oritsejolomi Thomas at Ibadan, Herbert C. Kodilinye at Nsukka and Iya Abubakar in Zaria.

    In my days in the University – by the way I attended Great Ife – one of the best Universities in the country and graduated on top of my Faculty, to boot, we did not have or see all these filth; these abnormalities.

    And that was as recently as the late 60’s to early ’70’s.

    But then came President Olusegun Obasanjo and everything went south.

    For him, University teachers were like football and could be kicked anyhow.

    His administration, 1999 – 2007 albeit had significant impact on Nigerian Universities.

    He established 12 new Universities and increased funding to the institutions.

    However, like everything Obasanjo, his aggressive privatisation and commercialisation of the Universities did not sit well with ASUU, the association of Nigerian University teachers which has been involved in titanic struggles, including strikes, and negotiations, with the government, to address issues such as funding, salaries, and working conditions.

    To the Obasanjo administration must, therefore, be credited the origins of most of the problems currently bedevelling our institutions of higher learning.

  • Develop sources of IGR for self-funding, Reps committee tells Nigerian universities

    Develop sources of IGR for self-funding, Reps committee tells Nigerian universities

    The House of Representatives Committee on University Education has urged Nigerian universities to develop internal revenue sources to become self-sufficient and depend less on government funding.

    During an oversight visit to several universities, the committee’s chairman, Hon. Hassan Abubakar Fulata, emphasised the need for university management to create products and initiatives for patenting.

    The committee visited the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), and Adeyemi Federal University of Education Ondo.

    He said various universities in the country can generate revenue through research and can come up with patents for inventions.

    He said there should be synergy between the universities and industrialists as well as relevant stakeholders for invention and development.

    According to the lawmakers, while the government must fund the universities, the management of the universities must properly utilise different sources of internally generated revenue for proper funding.

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    According to him, the desired result will not be achieved if the burden of funding universities and other tertiary institutions is left in the hands of the government alone.

    Speaking during the visit, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure sought the intervention of the National Assembly and relevant stakeholders to generate its own electricity for the school and its environs.

    Also speaking, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof. Adenike Temidayo Oladiji, said power supply has become one of the major problems in recent times.

    She commended the Fulata-led Committee for the advocacy resulting in the approval of a 50% electricity subsidy for tertiary institutions and hospitals. She commended President Bola Tinubu for yielding to the call and giving approval for the subsidy.

    She said the university can build a power plant that cannot only supply electricity to the FUTÀ campuses but can also supply power to different communities. She said the intervention of government is seriously needed in terms of funding as it is capital intensive.

    Similarly, the Acting Vice Chancellor of Adeyemi Federal University of Education Ondo, Ondo State, Dr Samuel Akintunde, said the school was recently converted from a college of education to a university and needs structures

    He sought the assistance of the legislators to address the challenge of infrastructure and proper funding of the universities.

    Also, Vice Chancellor of Federal University Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State, Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina drew the attention of the House Committee on University Education to the numerous challenges of the school and the need to tackle them.

    Fasina said the FUOYE has two campuses but there is difficulty in building structures for faculties and departments due to funds.

    He also said despite the presidential directive that universities and other tertiary institutions be removed from IPPIS, they are still operating under it. He sought the committee’s intervention for full compliance with the directive.

  • Don to FG: reinstate true autonomy to Nigerian universities

    Don to FG: reinstate true autonomy to Nigerian universities

    A Professor of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy at the University of Ibadan, Michael Odeniyi, has called on the government to reinstate true academic and administrative autonomy to Nigerian universities without undermining critical funding. 

    He made the call while delivering the 543rd Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of  Pharmacy.

    Professor Odeniyi noted that in recent times, there has been an assault on the curriculum development process and the ability to ensure the quality of the students’ intakes.

    He lamented that the universities’ academic autonomy to determine the direction of their academic programmes is being undermined, while the ability to recruit good quality staff and students is  assailed.

    He also called for the government to boost and invest in excipient development and production from locally available polymers while awaiting the take off of petrochemical industries.

    He said the government could also encourage local production through the imposition of taxes and tariffs on imported excipients.

    According to Professor Odeniyi, previous attempts at import substitution and local production failed because of inconsistent government policies and policy somersaults.

    He said there was an urgent need to remedy this in order to ensure a measure of drug independence and health security.

    Read Also: The plight of Nigerian universities

    He stated that records made available by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council showed that over N3trillion has been spent in the last six years to import pharmaceutical products into the country. 

    Professor Odeniyi said a significant volume of these are excipients can be readily obtained locally. 

    The inaugural lecturer stated that there was a need for long-term planning and a robust national policy on drug production that will survive the vagaries of changes in government. 

    The inaugural lecture was entitled “Whatever You Bind on Earth: New and Old Polymers in Pharmaceutical Engineering”

  • 52 varsities operating without governing councils

    52 varsities operating without governing councils

    No fewer than 52 universities are operating without governing councils with the institutions’ vice chancellors acting arbitrarily, including awarding contracts questionably. Lecturers’ promotions are also stalled, MANAGING EDITOR, NORTHERN OPERATION, YUSUF ALLI reports

    All is not well in the nation’s ivory tower as 52 universities, owned by the Federal Government, have no Governing Councils. Out of the 52, the councils of 42 were dissolved in July last year barely one and a half years to the end of their tenure on July 15, 2025. The remaining 10 universities, which were established in July 2021, are yet to have councils.

    It was learnt that the development has forced vice chancellors to act arbitrarily, including questionable award of contracts. It was also gathered that the absence of councils has slowed down the recruitment and promotion of lecturers.

    The councils are expected to perform the following functions, including approving the university’s annual budget, supervising staff recruitment and promotion and approving new academic programmes. The councils are also to ensure that each university functions in accordance with its goal and objectives.

     It is also the duty of a governing council of a university to see through the process of nominating its vice chancellor. But seven months after the dissolution of 42 governing councils, Federal universities have no “concrete direction”.

    It was gathered that the Federal Ministry of Education was in a fix on how to manage the legal effect of the violation of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act 2012.

    Investigation also revealed that there was pressure on the government to reverse the dissolution of the 42 councils as done by the administrations of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari.

    The immediate past Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, inaugurated the 42 Governing Councils of the Federal Universities on July 15, 2021.

    The councils were, however, dissolved in July 2023 contrary to the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act 2012.

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    Section 2(a) of the Act reads in part: “The council so constituted shall have tenure of four years from the date of its inauguration provided where a council is found to be incompetent and corrupt, it shall be dissolved by the Visitor and a new council shall be immediately constituted for effective functioning of the university.”

    A top source, who spoke in confidence, said: “There is a major challenge at hand in our universities. Some vice chancellors have been mismanaging funds because there are no governing councils to moderate their conduct.

    “It has been difficult to recruit and promote lecturers. Instead, some VCs only rush to the Federal Ministry of Education to seek approval of the minister for filling some vacancies in violation of the University Act.

    “We ran into this mess barely half into the tenure of the councils. They were arbitrarily dissolved contrary to the provision of the law. It was part of blanket dissolutions of the boards of Federal Government parastatals and agencies.

    “We believe this was an error as it was done previously under past Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari. The circumstances of the dissolution of the varsity councils by the past governments were the same like what we have experienced now.

    “When the attention of the past presidents was drawn to the illegal dissolution of the governing councils, it was quickly reversed to enable effective functioning of the universities as provided in their respective laws.

    “It is now over seven months since this error was made and it is yet to be corrected. Staff unions of the universities and other stakeholders have drawn the attention of the government to this but it is yet to take any action.

    “Apart from the 42 councils illegally dissolved, there are about 10 new Federal Universities, established since July 2021, that have no councils.”

    Another source attributed the delay to two factors, which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must watch.

    The source said: “Firstly, is an alleged attempt by some people in power to fill up the governing councils with their cronies. The politics of sourcing for council members is affecting the management of Federal universities.

    “Secondly, the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC) want to maintain stronghold on vice chancellors and the affairs of the affected 52 universities. They do not want governing councils in place.”

    But at the recent convocation of the University of Abuja, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the governing councils of the Federal Universities will soon be reconstituted.

    He said: “Governing Councils will soon be constituted and inaugurated for the tertiary institutions.

    “Membership of the councils will comprise competent Nigerians with the zeal and commitment to govern and reinvigorate the universities in line with the provisions of the extant laws and well-known traditions of the system.”

  • The plight of Nigerian universities

    The plight of Nigerian universities

    I have written and agonised over the plight of Nigerian universities many times in the past at public lectures and in the newspapers not because I am an incorrigible critic of governments’ handling of these institutions but because like Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu said about Biafra – “I was involved” and I cannot be unconcerned about the plight of the universities.

    I cannot tell my story about my life as an adult without saying something about Nigerian universities. First as from 1963 when I entered the University of Ibadan, I had been involved in the growth, development and problems and prospects of the Nigerian universities. After earning a PhD in 1970 in one of Canada’s oldest universities – Dalhousie University in 1970, I came back to join the University of Ibadan in 1972 at its Jos Campus in what without my knowing it then, establishment of universities in Nigeria was to become a political instrument in trying to resolve some of the knotty political and socio-economic problems of Nigeria. The University College of Ibadan in Jos then constituted an opening first salvo in the federal government’s approach to make higher education available to people in the minority areas of Nigeria.

    When the then young and brilliant Dr Jibril Aminu was appointed Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission in 1975 by General Gowon, he came with an agenda of broadening the admission opportunities for young Nigerians into tertiary educational institutions apart from the universities of Ibadan, Lagos, Ile-Ife, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the University of Benin and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Apart from the universities of Ibadan and Lagos, all the other universities belonged to the then regional governments of the West, East, the North and the Midwest. From the onset, the universities were regionally concentrated in the south because of the demand and university education was not the priority in the north where there were very few secondary schools to feed the only university then established in the north.

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    There may have been a government directive to Aminu to begin the expansion of university education nationally. The government had just come comfortably and confidently out of the civil war between 1967 and 1970 and the country was awash with petro-dollars after the doubling of the price of crude oil following the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 in which the Arabs tried to use the price of petrol against the West. The period also fell into the period of the “3Rs” Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reconciliation which was the post-civil war policy of the triumphant Gowon government. Thus the politics of location of the new universities was quickly settled. The new universities were to be located in Jos to take over the facilities of the Jos campus of Ibadan in the city. Others were to be established in Maiduguri to use the facilities of the then existing northeast government’s College of Advanced Studies preparing students for higher education. Others were to be located in the oil-producing areas of the south in Port Harcourt, Calabar. The University of Benin belonging to the Midwest government was to be taken over by the federal government and universities of Sokoto and that of Kano inheriting the existing Abdullahi Bayero College of Ahmadu Bello were established.

    Special role of agriculture and technology were emphasised in the establishment of the special universities in Makurdi, Abeokuta, Bauchi Yola, and Akure which not only reflected the agricultural and technological needs of the country and along with the universities in Kano, Maiduguri and Sokoto, reflected the power equation in the Murtala Muhammad/Obasanjo government of 1975 and post-General Muhammad’s assassination in 1976.

    All I can say is that the establishment of these universities brought tremendous opposition by the old guard in the Nigerian universities community who reasonably argued that standards would be lowered in admission and academic promotion following scarcity of qualified students and staff. The establishment of these universities became intertwined with the usual North/South arguments about the lopsided development of the country and the unequal power distribution and economic contribution of different parts of the country and the interminable ethnic conflicts in the country which in the past and the present have retarded the progress of the country. The universities have many times become victims of these conflicts  leading to exodus of great university teachers and students and with many universities established and all drawing from the federal exchequer, the individual funding has gone down and with the duplication of departments, facilities, programs and the struggle for good teachers the quality of education has gone down but not as down as the old professors feared and Professor Jibril whose determination in executing the policy of expansion would presumably go down in history as one of those who democratised higher institution in Nigeria.

    In solving the problem of quality control, he expanded the NUC from a normal Federal Grants Aid Commission into a powerful educational and politico-economic organ of educational development. He was most pilloried for his effort but I think history will be fair to him. The approach to the expansion was Cartesian with careful analysis and planning including opening of Nigerian universities’ offices in Cairo, Washington, Ottawa, Canada and unifying the old universities offices in London under one rubric. They were charged with aggressively pursuing staff training, staff recruitment, library and equipment sourcing as determined by the new universities in Nigeria including the old ones. 

    Of course the former vice chancellors whose universities had offices in London previously did not like the new system but had to live with them and I and others who manned these offices bore the angst and opposition to the new dispensation. On the whole, the new system worked unlike now when it is announcements of new universities either as part of after-dinner speeches or through casual announcements by the NUC without serious planning of sources of funding and staff. The result is that states, individuals, sectarian religious bodies, joined by the federal government, are struggling to beat themselves in the establishment of universities that has resulted into our country having a cumulative 262 number of universities comprising 147 private universities, 63 state universities and 52 federal universities of different hues and characters. Some of these universities are universities in name only and water will soon find its level.

    Some of the private universities will die natural death of lack of financial breath because of lack of patronage. Some of those running the universities do not have proper appreciation of the university idea. Why will some of the management of these universities be flogging their students as a way of discipline? This outrageous incident happened in a state university where students were lined up and made to kneel down and whipped mercilessly by tough guards specially recruited to teach the young students lessons they would never forget. One hopes this idea of physical punishment will not be our contribution to higher education in the 21st century.

    We have been reduced to the laughing stock of the whole world. The present government should rise to its responsibility and stop the present nonsense of establishment of new universities and put in force efforts to consolidate the existing institutions.

  • Filthy varsities

    Perhaps the most obvious symbol of the precipitous decline of Nigeria’s federal universities is the disgraceful state of their student hostels. Their decrepitude, filth, neglect and utter decay tell the story of a fall from grace in a way that almost nothing else can.

    Misleadingly called “halls of residence,” many of these squalid accommodations are virtually unfit for human habitation. They are heavily overcrowded, lacking in sanitary and other facilities, unsafe, and characterised by gross neglect on the part of both the students and the university authorities.

    In September 2015, students of the University of Lagos (Unilag), Lagos, embarked on a demonstration to protest the invasion of their hostels by bedbugs. In May 2017, students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, resorted to similar action, claiming that the bedbug menace had compelled many of them to sleep in football fields. If such deplorable conditions obtain at two of Nigeria’s most prestigious institutions, the situation in less well-resourced schools can only be imagined.

    Bathrooms in the hostels of many federal universities are often unusable, forcing students to take baths in the open. Toilets are so disgustingly dirty that residents are compelled to defecate in plastic bags and throw them out of the hostels. Rooms meant to take four occupants routinely accommodate 12 and more. Water is scarce; electricity is erratic; minimal standards of safety and cleanliness are unknown. In some cases, the buildings are structurally deficient, making the prospect of collapse an ever-present danger.

    This completely unacceptable situation is the consequence of a combination of funding shortfalls, administrative incompetence and widespread obstinacy.

    Most student housing in federal universities is priced well below economic cost. In the University of Calabar (Unical), one bed space costs N16,000 per session; at the University of Port Harcourt, it is N22,500; in Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), it is N7,090 per bed space; at OAU, it is N3,900 per bed space.

    These sums are completely unrelated to the economic realities of present-day Nigeria, and with university funding at a relative low, it is virtually impossible for the authorities to properly maintain the hostels. The resolution of disgraceful bedbug infestation, for example, requires regular and extensive fumigation, which is not cheap. The systematic repair and installation of plumbing, sanitary and electrical fittings is another expensive undertaking.

    To worsen matters, students consistently refuse to consider even minimal attempts to raise the price of hostel accommodation, often responding to such moves with aggressive demonstrations.

    University administrations are themselves guilty of complacency and incompetence. Far too many of them seem to regard the issue as something to be endured by their students and are apparently indifferent to the disastrous effect poor student housing has on the corporate image and smooth functioning of their institutions.

    There are several options that can be explored if universities are truly determined to turn their hostels into domiciles fit for human beings.

    One way would be to consider a variety of financing options for constructing new hostels on campus. Apart from actively seeking the assistance of alumni and philanthropists, there is also the possibility of going into business with developers on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis. This approach has the advantage of ensuring that more hostels are put up while saving the school concerned from the financial outlay involved in constructing them.

    University managements must also seek to work with students more closely in addressing the difficulties facing hostels, especially the rampant filth, gross overcrowding and frequent criminal activity. It should be possible to arrive at joint agreement on how hostels can be kept reasonably clean, decrease the incidence of illegal residence and reduce crime to the barest minimum. Both parties must realise that it is in their mutual interest to ensure that basic standards of cleanliness and safety are maintained.

    Decent accommodation is a vital component of a good university education. For as long as the nation’s future leaders are compelled to occupy housing that most animals would decline, for so long will universities fail to attain their true potential.

  • Why Nigeria needs more private universities, by Sambo

    Ex- Vice President Namadi Sambo, at the weekend said Nigeria needs more private universities to carter for its increasing population seeking tertiary education.

    Sambo urged stakeholders in the education sector and well-meaning Nigerians to take advantage of the enabling environment created by Federal Government to invest in private universities.

    The former Vice President stated this after he was inaugurated as Chairman, Governing Board of Baze University, a private institution located in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

    According to the National Universities Commission, there are 303 applications awaiting provisional license to begin operation.

    Sambo said that only myopic people go abroad in search of tertiary education when the enabling environment was being created at home by the government.

    The former VP said: “The population of this country is huge and it is encouraging to see that there are constantly new universities being established.

    “So I believe that objective to have proper number of universities that will support the number of students we have in this country.”

    He also noted that investment in tertiary education goes beyond financial and human capital, saying the enabling environment was equally key.

    “I believe the present administration is doing its best to encourage private sector investment in education which is good,” he added.

    Founder of the university, Sen. Datti Baba-Ahmed, said the appointment of the board was a major milestone that will boost education, not only for Baze University but the entire country.

    He said members of the board were selected across all the geopolitical zones in the country to nationalise and internationalise the trusteeship.

    “I am pleased to announce that in a system where we have over 90 percent of private universities having over 90 percent of their trustees from two states within one region, Baze University has the vision to nationalise and internationalise our trusteeship.

    “To the best that I can do, we have trustee members from every geopolitical zone,” he said.

    Other members of the board include, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Yayale Ahmed; former Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Joy Ogwu; public administrator Dr Charles Akintoye and Sam Nda-Isaiah, publisher of Leadership Newspapers, Abuja.

  • FG to Nigerian universities: Invest more on researches

    President Muhammadu Buhari has tasked  universities in the country to take the issue of research work seriously to build manpower,  human capital development and job creation.

    President Buhari gave the charge at the combined Convocation of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), held at the school campus Saturday.

    Buhari was represented in the event by the Minister of  states for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka.

    He noted that  the Federal Government is working  hard to ensure best International practice in the education sector.

    He urged Universities in Nigeria to intensify efforts aimed at attaining research breakthroughs in the new knowledge economy  that will rely on brain workers so as to generate employment, wealth and prosperity for the people.

    Buhari said,  “In this day and age research that cannot be capitalize by the industry for the benefit of the people is as good as mere academic exercise. I wish to appeal to Lecturers who are still in the old idea of publish or perish to repeal their position, in the new economy, the slogan should be, publish, patent and produce, which enriches Universities and societies in other parts of the world.

    “It is time for the university managements to change the narrative if the hope to remain relevant in the scheme of things, and also the issue of restructuring the curricular to bring them in line with the contemporary trends in other parts of the world.

    “It is time for universities to join forces with reputable industry players to frame research topics that can solve the numerous problems which besiege the industries, for which these industries goes to seek answers abroad, creating jobs for people in those countries, which is an indictment in the research capabilities of the universities in Nigeria, that industries here continues to patronise their foreign counterparts for solution to their operational and logistics problems.”

    He expressed happiness  that a few Universities in Nigeria   are bracing up with the challenges within the poor resources environment.

    He commended the  council, management, staff and students of University of Port Harcourt for the relative peace that has existed in the University saying that he is  happy that the management of the university have not concentrated on giving only  education to the students but also disciplining erring staff no matter how highly placed in the system.

    “This should serve as a warning to the students and staff who may wish to disturb the peace of the University anywhere in Nigeria. Freedom without control is a call to anarchy, which is detrimental to the peace and progress of the university system.

    “I am also happy to note that the Academic  Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its nationwide strike which paralyzed normal academic activities in the country for about three months.

    “The Federal Government has shifted grounds to accommodate some genuine demands of ASUU, but it was quiet unfortunate that the union insisted on going for the last strike action. This at variance to the what ASUU stated aim of quality university education in Nigeria stresses,” he stated.

    He stated that the Nigerian University system has under gone progressive transformation in the past four years of  his administration saying that  the result is the proof for all to see.

    He said that Federal Government has released funds through the appropriate  supervisory agencies for new structures, laboratory equipment, libraries and high impact research to the universities.

    He said that Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), and the Need Assessment have done enough to improve University education in Nigeria saying that the result has been for the universities to enhance their capacities to deliver quality education to the students.

    Earlier in his welcome address the Vice Chancellor of University of Port Harcourt , Professor Ndowa Lale appealed to traditional  rulers and opinion leaders in the host communities to assist  the University in  onerous task of containing land speculators who he said  randomly breach the statutorily recognised boundaries of the university.

    He said that the management have been forced to go to court to claim some of the pieces of land encroached upon by the speculators.

    He assured the school community and their host of their continued cordial relationship despite the avoidable experience.

    He noted that the students have been impacted with discipline and right sense of living as they pass through the academic process.

    He said that country’s near total dependence on oil amd gas resources at the expense of sustained human capital development has infected Nigeria with the dreaded ‘Dutch disease’.

    A total of 9, 452 graduands were conferred with various degrees during the  ceremony.

    According to records from the university,  a total of 4, 681 graduands received higher degrees from the school of graduate studies for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic sessions, while 2, 971 candidates received the Master’s degree and 1, 329 received post graduate Diploma in various fields among others, during the ceremony.

  • Best brains needed for national development, says Babalakin

    •”Elebute, an outstanding scholar”

    THE Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN), has said policies must be made to attract the best brains to teach in Nigerian universities.

    This, he said, would speed up the nation’s development.

    Babalakin spoke yesterday at UNILAG’s College of Medicine during a valedictory service in honor of the founder of Hygeia HMO Limited and former Chief Medical Director of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof. Emmanuel Adeyemo Elebute (CON).

    Noting that he was inspired by the late Elebute’s CV and achievements, the lawyer said the deceased contributed extensively to the development of medicine.

    Babalakin’s words: “Prof. Elebute attended CMS Grammar School and studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. He won the Cunningham Medal for Anatomy and Fitzpatrick Scholarship for the best performance in all professional examinations. With all the options available to him, he chose to come back to Nigeria and contribute to the College of Medicine, UNILAG. His CV is one that we should propagate.

    “We have been having serious difficulty in attracting the best of scholars to the university system. In the era of the Elebutes and those immediately after them, there was no better thing to do than to be in the academia. Various policies have made this unattractive and until we reverse these policies and begin again to attract the best brains to teach in universities, our national development will remain stifled.”

    Stating that the late Elebute was not only an academic but a “phenomenal administrator”, the pro-chancellor said: “He was the Chief Medical Director of LUTH from 1978 -1980. Before then he had participated actively in the union of doctors, seeking to improve the welfare of doctors as President of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) between 1968 and 1970.

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    “He was also a member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Surgery. What this tells us is that we can rebuild from where we find ourselves; we can create a Nigerian academy that will be the envy of all.”

    Babalakin explained that having distinguished himself as an academic, the late Elebute went further into providing medical services by establishing the Lagoon Hospital, which is “arguably one of the best medical centers in Nigeria today” and transformed it into Hygeia HMO.

    “The best way to celebrate this great man is to tell ourselves that we have the same inspiration; we have the same greatness and we will further it. We must decide to turn whatever stumbling blocks we find on our way into stepping stones for the attainment of greater heights”, he added.

    The Vice-Chancellor of UNILAG, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, said the late Elebute was a “mentor and not a tormentor” as well as a great grammarian.

    Provost, UNILAG College of Medicine, Prof. Afolabi Lesi, described the late Elebute as “an iconic man of many parts, a brilliant academician, a disciplined master of surgical craft, a true friend and a wonderful family man”.

    According to LUTH CMD, Prof. Chris Bode, the late Elebute was an “impeccable dresser and was humble beyond belief.”

    One of the deceased’s daughters, Mrs Dupe Odunsi, who gave the vote of thanks, said the late Elebute was “a wonderful father, who put a lot of enthusiasm into building our home”.

    Also at the event were Elebute’s widow, Prof. Oyinade, and his children; Dr. Olorogun Sunny Kuku of Eko Hospital; Provost, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Prof. B. Osinusi; and Prof. Oladapo Ashiru of Mart-Life Clinic; among other eminent medical practitioners.