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Tag: University

  • Why many university graduates are jobless these days

    Why many university graduates are jobless these days

    Whenever I reflect on graduate joblessness these days, I cannot but recall the good old days when there were more jobs than graduates. My employment history reflected the spirit of the times. Upon my completion of secondary school education at Olofin Anglican Grammar School, Idanre, the School Principal, the late Mr. Titus Adeola Oke, gave me a hybrid employment to teach literature in form two and also assist him in his office, even before the West African School Certificate examination results were released.

    Years later, after completing my degree in English at the University of Ife, a job was waiting for me at the same secondary school. However, by September of that same year, I was called back to Ife to start my university teaching career. These early encounters with the job market were replicated over and over again throughout my career. I was headhunted for all my teaching and research positions at home and abroad. The truth is that every graduate I knew at that time had a job waiting for him or her somewhere. With only five or six universities in Nigeria at that time,  there were more job openings than there were university graduates to fill the vacancies. What is more, a number of my contemporaries in secondary school, who did not go to the university, aquired enough transferable skills and self discipline to study via correspondence tuition to become accountants, lawyers, and what have you, and they eventually rose to the top of their professions.

    Of course, the population has exploded since my undergraduate days, and higher education institutions have mushroomed out of control. Today, there are 307 universities and 812 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions in Nigeria, according to latest figures from the National Universities Commission and the National Board of Technical Education, respectively. The TVET institutions include 194 polytechnics; 32 Colleges of Agriculture; 131 Colleges of Health Sciences; 154 Colleges of Nursing Science; 181 Innovation Enterprise Institutions;153 Technical Colleges; and 98 so-called Specialised Institutions. Altogether, there are 1,119 higher education institutions in the country, churning out hundreds of thousands of students every year.

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    It is estimated that 50 percent or more of graduates from these institutions today are unemployed or underemployed. There are many factors responsible for this unpleasant outcome. First, the unplanned multiplicity of higher education institutions has produced graduates far more than available jobs.

    Second, many factories and manufacturing industries, which are major employers of labour, have been shutting down in response to a slowing economy, high interest rates, poor or inadequate infrastructure, and insecurity.

    Third, educational standards have been on the decline due to numerous factors, including inadequate staffing, poor remuneration and incentives, lack of necessary equipment and facilities, decrepit infrastructure, and over-population of teaching spaces and labs.

    Fourth, institutions have not been keeping their curriculums relevant to the needs of the job market. To complicate matters, today’s graduates are hardly equipped with proper career orientation, which often makes it difficult for them to find a suitable job that matches their qualifications.

    Fifth, our graduates are victims of a skills gap. In other words, there is a serious mismatch between the skills and competencies our graduates have and the skills employers need for job vacancies. Such skills or competencies should normally be identified at the beginning of a class lesson, a lab work, or a workshop so that students are keyed into them. Students also should be trained on how to transfer skills from one area of knowledge to another in order to solve a new problem or adapt to a new job situation.

    I noticed this knowledge gap in my encounter with some graduates while conducting a workshop for teachers of English in a secondary school. I was astonished that a graduate of English had difficulty reading, understanding, and teaching a literature textbook outside the ones she studied before as a student. I also came across a graduate of statistics, who lacked the basic skills to assist in the analysis of data obtained in an opinion poll.

    Sixth, many Nigerian graduates are not sufficiently computer literate for today’s job market. They complete their education without adequate computer skills beyond the use of the telephone and social media Apps. They can use of Google to search for answers to homework assignments all right or hack into other users’ data for fraudulent purposes. But they lack basic knowledge of how computers work and can hardly use productivity software. That is why today, the integration of technology, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation, even in knowledge-based sectors, is displacing workers and contributing to graduate unemployment.

    Finally, and I blush each time I must repeat this: Most Nigerian graduates lack basic communicative skills in English, the official language, and the language of white-collar workplaces. This is especially true of graduates of public universities and even worse for polytechnic and other TVET graduates. Sometimes, I wonder whether English was their medium of instruction at all or how they succeeded if it was!

    I must add, however, that the various problems discussed above are not peculiar to Nigeria. These same factors also account for graduate unemployment across the globe. Nevertheless, the problems vary from country to country. So is the rate of unemployment. For example, on the one hand, university graduate unemployment rate is relatively high in the United States, where the rate is now about the same as the unemployment rate for those without university education.

    On the other hand, university graduate unemployment in Britain and the European Union is lower than that of the United States, with significant variations from country to country. A major reason for the difference is in the alignment of skills acquired in European universities and the job market.

    What is important for Nigeria is to tackle these problems headlong. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has taken several major steps in this direction. First, he put a seven-year moratorium on the establishment of universities in the country to halt the overproduction of university graduates. The moratorium should be generalised across all higher education institutions. Besides, a thorough survey of all higher institutions in the country should be carried out with a view to closing failed institutions or merge failing ones with more successful or bigger institutions in order to consolidate resources.

    Second, President Tinubu has ordered the final revision and implementation of secondary education curriculum to better prepare students for entry into higher educational institutions.

    Third, he ordered a focus on TVET education, with attention on skills acquisition. Under the astute management of Professor Duke Okoro, the Rector, the young Federal Polytechnic, Orogun, Delta State, has invested in skills acquisition and skills transfer from the beginning, which enabled the institution recently to win first place in national engineering competition on “Applying Engineering Solutions to Tanker Explosion and Fire Outbreak.”

    But a lot more still needs be done. The remuneration of teachers across the education sector is long overdue for upward revision in light of current economic realities. There should be more effort on job creation through greater investment in infrastructure beyond road construction. More attention should be given to power and water supply as well as recreational facilities.

    The need to enhance security is also critical to attracting investment and creating a path to reindustrialisation. Still more effort should be made to make state and local goverments more responsible for education.

    Finally, it is necessary to inject new blood into the civil service and encourage old hands to retire quietly. This is one way to initiate changes in existing civil service culture with all its problems, while also creating jobs for new graduates.

  • Trivialising Nigeria’s university system

    Trivialising Nigeria’s university system

    • By Oluwole Ogundele 

    There is a need to revisit aspects of the educational systems of Nigeria with a special emphasis on the universities.  One major objective of university education is the production of critical minds capable of demonstrating self-confidence, creativity and employability. Profound integrity and competence are of the essence, understandably because university education is not a cosmetic exercise. In a nutshell, university education is geared towards the production of young men and women capable of becoming the movers and shakers of Nigerian society as well as the entire globe in the future.

    These include world-class medical practitioners, nurses, a broad range of engineers, artists and other scientists capable of crafting and re- crafting the topography of human progress, often within the confines of robust internationalisation.

    Given the above analysis, the Nigerian political leadership has to wake up from its slumber so as to effectively address the current collapse of our university system. University education is a serious engagement. It is a world away from the smelly, primordial politics of the belly. Desperate politics is a reflection of unbridled immorality – a monumental disservice to society.

    The British colonial government established the University College of Ibadan in 1948. It was attached to the University of London, until it became independent in 1962. Other universities were later established. These included the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1960; University of Ife, Ile-Ife (later changed to Obafemi Awolowo University) 1961; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and University of Lagos, Lagos (1962).

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    Although the human population of Nigeria has grown exponentially from 45 million or thereabout in the 1960s to over 230 million today, reckless proliferation of universities is a mockery of higher education. It is unproductive to be establishing sub-standard universities across the geo-polity. If truth be told, these are a caricatured image of tertiary education. Where are the infrastructural facilities and qualified, world- class teachers? A lot of senior politicians are merely struggling to have new universities in their villages, as a gateway to higher political fortunes. They do not care a hoot about sustainable educational culture. Self- aggrandisement remains their guiding principle.

    It is too easily forgotten that mediocre university graduates are a burden to society. Graduates without skills and sophisticated intellectual capacities cannot take Nigeria out of the woods. Again, many students who are now rushing to take JAMB examinations are, indeed, not university stuff. University education is not for every “Tom, Dick and Harry.”

     Not everybody was aspiring to go to university during my secondary school days in the 1970s. Everyone knew and appreciated his academic strength. No unhealthy rivalry, at least on a significant scale. Most of those who could not make it to the university level eventually succeeded in other areas of life. Indeed, there were/are several options to contribute to personal and national development.

    But today, the falcons can no longer hear the falconer. Most parents (out of huge ignorance) assume that having children in university (at all costs) defines their social status. They engage in all kinds of unthinkable fraudulent practices in order to get their children admitted into tertiary institutions. Consequently, they pollute Nigerian society. Salute to Professor. I. O. Oloyede, the current JAMB Registrar, for bringing some sanity into the university admissions’ system that was formerly in a coma!

    The philosophy of “6-3-3-4” educational mode rigorously designed and executed in the past has now become a joke. Technical education has been relegated to the background because every secondary school student wants to go to a university – by fire, by force.

    The Ministry of Education needs to do much more to rescue the ship of Nigeria that is sinking to a lower level of the ocean of modernity and sustainability. Over-dependence on Europe, America and parts of Asia will continue unabated, so long as sufficient attention is not paid to profound human capital development in this country. The National Universities Commission (NUC) has to prove to the citizens that it has not joined the crowd to shortchange and/or rape mother Nigeria. This commission needs some rigorous self-analysis in order to reduce the menace of sub-standard varsity education to the barest minimum.

    The Ministry of Education cannot afford to de-couple itself from the Nigerian people. Similarly, our political leaders across the board must take the above challenges very seriously. Fine-grained responsiveness and critical flexibility to local needs and/or aspirations cannot be glossed over. This is one of the fundamentals of good leadership. But painfully, this leadership cultural trait is yet to gain in popularity in Nigeria. Only spiritless leaders ignore the cries of the led. Leadership in saner climes and cultures is ontologically people-sensitive. It is at variance with primitive ego and corruption, especially on an insane scale.

    The government needs to strengthen and enrich the older universities in order to effectively cater for more students. Currently, Nigeria has over 270 universities. At least 149 of them are privately owned. The number continues to go up daily. “Legs of cattle and humans are now mixed up.” I’m just pleading with “the powers that be” to have a rethink. They should be creating industries for our youths to work. Let us stop polluting the Nigerian intellectual space with caricatured varsities, in the interest of the common good. The National Assembly, Ministry of Education and other related bodies must allow sanity to reign supreme.

    The Federal Government has to begin to motivate staff members, especially academics. A group of motivated academics can perform wonders. Poorly paid lecturers will not and cannot put in their best. No federal university professor should earn less than N2 million monthly.

    Similarly, an assistant lecturer must not take less than N500,000 in a month, given the hyper-inflation ruining the national economy. This would enable him to serve his fatherland to the full. Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) members need (more than hitherto) revitalisation of their pockets, while the Committee of Vice-Chancellors pursues the issue of revitalisation of facilities. No amount of superb infrastructural facilities (in the face of chronically low wages) can mitigate the challenges of brain drain and low performance.

     Again, the ASUU leadership should embrace greater flexibility and responsiveness within the confines of commonsense. They must jettison weak and overly reactionary ideologies that are injurious to the hearts and souls of members. Only the living can enjoy good infrastructural facilities. Uncommon wisdom and unalloyed patriotism are of the essence. I hope that the critical stakeholders in the Nigerian education project will give this clarion call the quick attention it deserves.

    •Prof. Ogundele writes from University of Ibadan, Oyo State

  • Nigeria’s university system in distress

    Nigeria’s university system in distress

    • By Oludayo Tade

    Professor Eníkànlómò has been very devoted to his calling. He believes in developing future leaders, publishing in the best outlets and putting the names of his university and the country on the global map. But it goes beyond that. When he joined the university system, the system was still working. There was electricity to research, publish and teach. The economy was better and with careful use of available resources, he was still able to survive.

    With time, electricity supply became epileptic, his laboratory that once had some materials to work with lacked the essentials. He could not teach his students again with modern equipment. Suddenly, the stove replaced the Bunssen burner in the laboratory. Some of his friends who could afford powering their generators to carry out experiments could no longer do that without experiencing severe strain on their resources.

    Now close to his retirement, Professor Enikanlomo thinks of what the government will pay him. His present salary is a little above N500, 000. When he joined, it was with passion. Now, the passion is dying, if not dead. He has been wounded terribly by the failure of the government to improve the salaries and working conditions of university lecturers. As he looks back, Professor Enikanlomo, summarised his thoughts with the title of the Valedictory Lecture of the late renowned Professor of Radiation and Health, Idowu Farai, that the university that he met was better than the one he is about to exit from.

    The Nigerian public university system is in serious distress. Let federal or state governments not fool you. Our university administrators are equally becoming like the Nigerian governments. They love creating false impressions through the painting of buildings and construction of magnificent entrance gates. The gates of these universities may be beautiful but the stories of lecturers who are saddled with the tasks of imparting knowledge within the system is pathetic. Lecturers can’t see anything renewed in their hopes. They struggle not to say that their hopes for taking up the noble profession are dashed; but as they wake up every day to go to their offices, they feel used and trampled upon. They often wondered if it is a sin to take up the profession. Their offices are mostly paired. Since they are not often provided with current materials, they still use their limited resources to update their knowledge. They teach overpopulated classes. Their institutions struggle to provide electricity for them.

    Their standards of living have dropped. Bad economic policies of the current administration have forced many lecturers to abandon their vehicles at home. Some of them now trek distances to reduce the biting cost of transportation. Those with two cars have parked one while sharing one with their wives to do ‘school runs.’ Some with health conditions struggle to maintain routine checks and money for medications.

    Younger scholars are afraid of what will become of them if things continue to go downward. In one recent recruitment, the young men with PhD were offered Lecturer II. A lecturer II goes home with about N180,000 after tax while a newly appointed Professor does not take N500,000 home in our federal universities. Some of the newly recruited resigned a few months after their appointment. They reasoned that it would be difficult to sustain themselves and raise a family and still remain useful with that salary in this terrible economy. The implication of these poor welfare conditions on the university system in Nigeria is that qualified intellectuals are running away from lecturing while those who have nothing to do with intellectualism are getting recruited into the system. The future is already predictable.

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    While younger lecturers are leaving or finding options to leave, university old-timers are sad. Those in the mid-career cadre also feel trapped. Mid-career lecturers contribute money to ensure that their courses get accredited. Their university management has become parasitic. They don’t release enough money to run their departments; the Head of Department becomes a ‘corporate beggar,’ looking for who will donate papers, computers, and so on.

    Public accommodation for students on campus is terrible. There is no way you will train someone in that environment and the person will appreciate voting money into education when they get to office. Consequently, mid-career academics are simply buying time to become Professors and ‘Japa’ out of the country with their families in search of greener pastures, even if it is to enjoy life for a few years before death comes. Staying put for those people is like sleeping in a poorly ventilated room during a hot weather with mosquitoes singing ‘emilokan’ (it is my turn to suck blood) into your ears.

     Children of lecturers are not encouraged to choose the profession of their parents. They do not want to suffer. Some children have even looked at their parents and told them that it is only English that they can speak, that they don’t have money. Don’t blame the children. They have lived long enough in Nigeria to know that ‘Olowo layemo’ (the world celebrates rich people).

    As lecturers struggle to survive the excruciating conditions, their attention is more focused on survival through other means while less passion and less commitment is visible in how they handle their assignments. A demotivated workforce cannot give their best. Moreover, the government does not allow quick replacement of retired lecturers. As such, few lecturers teach many courses and supervise the ever-increasing number of students. They supervise doctoral students, master students and undergraduates. When a lecturer is allocated up to 20 students in a session across levels, how can you guarantee quality supervision? The excess teaching and supervision that lecturers undertake when the government refuses to recruit is what is called earned academic allowances. But successive governments have been owing lecturers.

    It is now five months since the Federal Government under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu put the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in an indeterminate state over the re-negotiation of the 2009 agreement. ASUU reached an understanding with the Yayale Ahmed-led Committee, with the review of the report of the Nimi Briggs–led FGN-ASUU Renegotiation Committee in December 2024. As at the time of putting this piece together, ASUU members are waiting for agreement signing.

    Additionally, the FG committee made some promises to the union which are also still awaiting implementation. According to the ASUU President, Chris Pinuwa, “The government agreed to mainstream the Earned Academic Allowances into the salaries with the creation of “Irregular Allowance” as a budget line in the 2026 Budget, after the release of Fifty Billion Naira for backlog and budgeting Twenty-nine Billion Naira for payment of 2025 Earned Academic Allowances. Similarly, the government also agreed to release One Hundred and Fifty Billion Naira as revitalisation funds within four weeks with effect from April, 2025. However, we are still waiting for the government to fulfil these promises.”

    We are now entering June, 2025 and the university community is waiting on the President not to see lecturers as an opposition party that must be crushed and left to suffer. We cannot ill-treat lecturers and expect them to be in the best frame of mind to impart knowledge. Lecturers must be well resourced and remunerated, and universities should have the needed equipment and infrastructure through committed funding from the federal and state governments.

    Communities must join lecturers in saving public universities. Public universities remain the most subscribed due to affordability and accessibility. However, establishing more universities is only useful if they will be funded. The community where new universities are sited may be happy that ‘awonlokan,’ but we may just be establishing ‘local-city’ and not ‘universe-city,’ thereby multiplying our mediocrity. There is an urgent need to address the downward slope that public university education is moving. Nigeria cannot develop without solving the problems confronting her universities.

    • Prof. Tade writes from University of Ibadan, Oyo State

  • Winners emerge in the maiden edition of the ‘University Duel’ competition

    Winners emerge in the maiden edition of the ‘University Duel’ competition

    The need for the promotion of healthy academic competition in universities has further been emphasised, just as Covenant University won the maiden edition of the University Duel Challenge, which came with a prize money of N4.5m.

    Speaking at the prize presentation ceremony on Tuesday, the Founder of STEM Africa and the Chief Executive Officer of JustMedia Limited, Mr Oladapo Ojo, who is also the organiser of the University Duel competition, said the idea of the competition came three years ago after ten years of organising the same for secondary schools.

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    “Three years ago, we felt that it was time to do something different in Africa. Before that, we’ve done over ten years of similar competitions in high schools. We strongly felt that in Africa, there are other competitions for dancing, music and all kinds. Therefore, we felt that it’s time we take the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) competition to universities for two reasons: One, to encourage young people to take STEM very seriously and two, to also encourage those who are in STEM to see that there’s potential in it.”

    He explained that his outfit started by reaching out to the National Universities Commission (NUC).

  • University of Bolton promotes Dr. Celestine Iwendi to full Professor of AI

    University of Bolton promotes Dr. Celestine Iwendi to full Professor of AI

    The University of Bolton has confirmed the promotion of  Dr. Celestine Iwendi to a full grade of a Professor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the United Kingdom Based tertiary institution.

    Commenting on  the promotion Prof. Iwendi said he was deeply honored to share the incredible milestone of his promotion to Professor at the University of Bolton, where he continues to lead as the Head of the Centre of Intelligence of Things (CIoTh). 

    He noted that the achievement represents a significant chapter in his academic, professional journey, and is filled with immense gratitude for everyone who has been a part of this path.  

    According to him, “First and foremost, I extend my heartfelt thanks to Professor George Holmes, Vice Chancellor of the University of Bolton, for his unwavering support, visionary leadership, and belief in my potential. His guidance has been instrumental in shaping my contributions to the university, the CIoTh, and the broader academic community. His encouragement has consistently inspired me to aim higher and innovate further.  

    “As the head of CIoTh, I have had the privilege of spearheading research and innovation at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and sustainability. Our work focuses on advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through interdisciplinary collaborations with global researchers, industry leaders, and government agencies. This platform has enabled me to contribute to impactful solutions addressing real-world challenges while mentoring future generations of scholars and innovators.

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    “This promotion is not just a personal milestone but also a reminder of the immense responsibility I have to the academic and professional community. It strengthens my resolve to continue driving excellence in research, mentoring students, and fostering global collaborations that push the boundaries of knowledge and technology.  

    “I am especially grateful for the support of my colleagues, students, and collaborators, who inspire me daily with their dedication, creativity, and passion for learning and discovery. Together, we have achieved remarkable progress in cutting-edge areas such as AI ethics, IoT applications, and data-driven sustainability.  

    “This new role represents not just a recognition of past accomplishments but also an opportunity to create greater impact in education, research, and innovation. I am excited to continue building a future where technology and human ingenuity come together to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.”

    Prof. Iwendi is a renowned scholar and technologist specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless sensor networks, and cybersecurity. 

    He holds a PhD in Electronics Engineering and serves as the Head of the Centre for Intelligence of Things (CIoTh) at the University of Bolton, United Kingdom. 

    With over 23 years of technical expertise, he has become a key figure in advancing AI and its applications in various fields, including medical technology, smart cities, and network security.

    Key Highlights of Prof. Iwendi’s Career and professional Recognition includes: Senior Member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants (FIMC).

    Recently, he was listed among the top 2 percent of influential scientists globally, based on a study published by Stanford University and Elsevier and he is IEEE Brand Ambassador and ACM Distinguished Speaker.

    Similarly, his research focus and global impact spans multiple disciplines, including AI, machine learning, IoT, and cybersecurity.

    He has co-authored numerous highly cited research publications, with 60.7 percent of his work in the top 25 percent most cited globally and 47 percent having a significant global impact.His work contributes to 13 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    Prof. Dr. Iwendi academic prowess, academic and research leadership as the Head of the CIoTh at the University of Bolton, promotes interdisciplinary research collaboration across academia, industry, and government agencies. He is also actively involved in mentoring and supervising students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels

    He is a visiting professor at multiple universities and has delivered keynote speeches at international conferences on topics like AI and trade, supply chain optimization, and leveraging emerging technologies for societal benefit.

    On International Collaboration, Prof. Iwendi is known for his work on fostering global research partnerships and has co-authored publications with researchers from across the globe, with 92.6% of his publications involving international collaboration.

    Prof. Iwendi’s contributions to the fields of AI and IoT, along with his active role in mentoring and his academic leadership, have earned him a prominent position in the global research community.

  • The university next door

    The university next door

    When Governor Yahaya Bello announced during the run-up to the gubernatorial election that he would establish a university in my hometown Kabba – please pardon my provincialism here – in the much-neglected West Senatorial district of Kogi State, and get it up and running in three months, I dismissed it as a cheap gimmick to mollify the locals.

    They are at heart progressive, the locals, and hence attuned to the ideology of the APC.  But Yahaya’s brutal and polarizing rule over the past eight years had alienated them to the point that their electoral support for the APC could no longer be taken for granted. 

    Their disenchantment deepened when, in breach of the general understanding that the post of governor would be ceded to a candidate from a different zone if the incumbent has been in office for two terms or a maximum of eight years,  Yahaya Bello foisted his homeboy and relation on the state as the APC’s gubernatorial candidate. 

    He would further alienate large swathes of the population by muscling in as state governor, Usman Ododo, who had served under him as auditor-general of Kogi’s muddled local government system.

    The whole thing was a sham.  Days before the poll, result sheets had been compiled in the governor’s constituency, according to several watchers.  Ododo had registered an unassailable lead.

    Was the proposed university a scam, the latest in a long line of scams that Yaya Bello has executed as state governor?  One recalls how he proclaimed Kogi Covid-free; how his administration had built and equipped six state-of-the-art covid-testing centres, distributed high-quality face masks to the entire residents of the state, and built six intensive care units for non-existing Covid patients, and how he had transformed Kogi into the investment capital of Nigeria and the ECOWAS nations.

    It is also necessary to recall how, under Yahaya Bello’s administration, statutory salaries were replaced by whatever amounts he directed state officials to pay into the bank accounts of state employees.  This was essentially a reprise of the Imo Formula devised by that state’s military governor, Brigadier-General Ike Nwachukwu, and the state’s Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu.

    At the end of each month, officials would tote up the revenue that had accrued to the stated and prorate it among the entitled population.  At the enunciation of the Formula, a reporter asked what would happen if there was nothing to share.

    Then there would be nothing to share, Kalu replied,  brimming with the smug satisfaction that was his trademark.

    The proposed university was a welcome answer to the historic yearnings of a people who, household for household, rank among the most credentialed in Nigeria, and for whom education is the basic industry.  But its timing was suspect, and it called forth some poignant questions.

    The state’s flagship Abubakar Audu University, in Anyigba, has been struggling since its establishment more than two decades ago.  Funding has been epileptic at best.  The second one, at Osara, near Okene, has yet to take a firm footing and now, a third, starting with the rudimentary infrastructure meant for a technical college, and with just three months to begin operations? 

    Why the rush?

    In this frenzy, beg your pardon, flurry of construction belongs the government-owned Reference Hospital at Okene which Yahaya Bello has described, without fear and without research, as the best in Nigeria. In terms of layout and facilities, the sprawling complex qualifies as one of the best in the nation, according to informed observers. 

    But many patients who go there seeking treatment are referred to the Federal Medical Centre in the state capital, Lokoja, because the panoply of expertise that should be its hallmark is simply not there – at least not yet:  a reminder from the time of former Akwa Ibom governor and now senate president, Godswill Akpabio, that buildings, no matter how well-appointed, do not a world-class hospital make, any more than a hood, however fanciful, makes a monk.

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    The attentive audience in Kogi was skeptical.  The skepticism lingered even after Yahaya Bello steamrolled an enabling law through the Kogi State Assembly and set up an Implementation Committee with a mandate to cut through the bureaucratic and other impediments and ensure that the institution would start early in the new year.  It went to work in earnest.

    The appointment of the distinguished literary scholar and recipient of the National Order of Merit, Professor Emeritus Olu Obafemi, as chair of the Implementation Committee was reassuring.  So was its composition – a roll call of some of the best and brightest Kogi indigenes.   But you also ha to reckon with the state governor’s quick temper and zero tolerance for dissent of any kind on any issue.

    Would he allow the Committee to discharge its mandate with the minimum of interference?  Here again, one had the assurance that, under Obafemi’s leadership, the Committee would not roll over and let Yahaya Bello have his way on the fundamental issues, or allow him to take its name in vain, without adherence to the values to which its members subscribe collectively.

    One’s fears did not materialize.  Obafemi and his team delivered, on schedule. 

    They identified and recommended key officials of the university for appointment, designed its logo and motto and other items of its paraphernalia, offered admission to more than 1,000 students and got a grip on the logistics of office accommodation for faculty and staff, and hostel accommodation for students.

    After its first matriculation which was staged on its Kabba campus a fortnight ago, there can be no doubt that, as they say in Nigeria, the institution has come to stay. 

    Seeing the students gliding – I take that back – floating in their newly-minted academic gowns reminded me of the centrality of that item in the life of the Nigerian undergraduate. It marks and launches an inflection point.  Nothing will ever be the same with them again, even in these disarticulated times.  Nor will Kabba, its home, be the same again.

    The first impulse on being assigned the gown is to deck oneself in it and take pictures for the folks back home  The camera phone has made the task easy and cheap.  In my time, you had to go to a photographer’s studio to get the picture made. 

    For effect, you wore your regalia all the way from campus to the bustling Yaba Bus Stop and Surulere, sweating it out in a danfo.  Even today, when there is a university in every alley, it is always an arresting scene when the new undergraduate floats down the neighborhood, his academic gown billowing.

    Whatever the difficulties and uncertainties of the moment, the students who were matriculated in Kabba that Saturday should not doubt that going to university is the right call.  To them and the tens of thousands waiting to take that leap, remember:  The future belongs to the prepared.

  • JUST IN: Former Abia university deputy VC Emezue kidnapped

    JUST IN: Former Abia university deputy VC Emezue kidnapped

    Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted a former Deputy vice-Chancellor of Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, identified as Prof. Godwin Emezue.

    Reports indicate that the university professor was with his wife when hoodlums, who had been following them, intercepted and abducted him.

    They were reportedly ambushed after leaving a gas station in Umuekwu, Amachara, Umuahia South local government area, before the assailants struck.

    The criminals reportedly took his wife’s ATM card and forcibly took the Deputy Vice-Chancellor into a Lexus SUV, fleeing the scene.

    It was gathered that the university professor had recently laid his father-in-law to rest three months prior to the abduction.

    There was no confirmation if the kidnappers had contacted the family.

    Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Maureen Chinaka confirming the incident disclosed that it happened on Friday, adding that police got official information about the incident around 9:30pm, while the incident happened about 7:30pm.

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    “The Abia State Police Command is deploying resources and assets including intelligence and technical aid towards unravelling the crime, and safely rescuing the victim from his captors.

    “We urge Abians to remain calm and continue their legitimate activities while maintaining vigilance and being security conscious

    “Furthermore, we seek the cooperation of the public, especially by way of providing any useful information that could be helpful in these particular circumstances, and in attaining enhanced security in the state, generally,” said Chinaka.

  • University professor calls for creation of adult daycare to support elderly

    University professor calls for creation of adult daycare to support elderly

    A Professor of Social Work at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Uzoma Okoye, has called for the establishment of Adult daycare centres to provide the necessary care and attention needed by the elderly for a longer and healthier life.

    Okoye, who made the call in Nsukka while delivering the university’s 195th inaugural lecture titled “Aging PLC: A business where everyone is a shareholder but not aware. Can Social Work Help?”, said there is a need to establish Adult Day Care just as Children Day Care to give old people the required care and attention they needed to live longer.

    She said: “Some people may say Adult Day Care or Old People’s Homes are not part of our culture in this part of the world but we must adapt to the changing world realities.”

    The lecturer, who is the first professor in the Social Work Department to present an inaugural lecture at the university, urged Nigerians to support aging businesses “since everybody is a shareholder.”

    She said: “Ageing PLC is a limited liability company where every Nigeria and those yet unborn are shareholders but not aware.

    “Unfortunately, this aging PLC is not a business where you have the option to be shareholders or not, as everybody is a shareholder.

    “Why it’s imperative to support aging people is because whether you like it or not, you start aging right from the day you were born.

    “Unlike other companies where board members are given the authority to run the company but in aging PLC, everyone is a board member.”

    She said that findings from her PhD research work revealed that attitude, stigma, and assumptions about aging were heavily embedded within social cognition.

    “It’s generally believed by Nigerians that age comes with inevitable physical and cognitive decay.

    “With this attitude toward the aged, some consider themselves a social burden and have a strong sense of waiting for death.

    “We should all put smiles on the faces of old people as a way of giving them a sense of belonging as well as enabling them to live longer,” she said.

    The professor of Social Work tasked her department to take the responsibility of sensitising and educating Nigerians on the need to use adult daycare for older people to enable them to live longer for their families and society.

    He said: “Students in the Social Work department should take this as part of their responsibility in their service to humanity.”

    Okoye expressed special appreciation to her husband for his love, care, and maximum support for her at all times.

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    She said: “My husband is the best husband in the world, if there is reincarnation I will marry him in my next world.”

    She also expressed appreciation to her family members, the university all and sundry who contributed in one way or the other to her growth in life.

    In a remark, Prof Charles Igwe, the Vice-Chancellor of UNN said that the university’s inaugural lecture remained a very important lecture for professors.

    Igwe said that the topic of Okoye’s lecture was unique and important as it made everyone know that he or she was a shareholder in an aging business.

    He commended her for presenting a lecture that would go a long way to promote the care, love, and longevity of old people in society.

  • University fees’ hike

    University fees’ hike

    It would appear some of the issues to the last suspended strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU are creeping back, albeit, from a different angle. Emerging events are beginning to raise concerns as to the genuineness of some of the promises made by the government for which ASUU called off its strike action towards the end of last year.

    Central to this was the issue of adequate funding for the universities. Then, the government had said it made a provision of N300 billion revitalization funds in the 2023 appropriation bill to improve infrastructural facilities and operations in the federal universities.

    Given this, the general expectation was that these funds would be made available to the universities to address some of the debilitating infrastructural challenges that had over time, been the source of conflict between ASUU and the government leading to prolonged strikes. But emerging signals point to a different direction.

    Within the last few weeks, federal universities have been announcing general but very substantial increases in the fees paid by their students as they are set to commence a new academic session. The managements of the University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile Ife, the University of Jos, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike and University of Uyo among others have had their fees increased.

    Fresh students of OAU in the faculties of arts, law and humanities will pay N151, 200 while their returning counterparts in the same faculties will pay N89, 200. Returning students of the same faculties paid N20, 000 during the last academic year.

    The same pattern of phenomenal increases featured at the University of Benin with science students who previously paid N73, 000 now required to pay N190, 000. Non-science students that paid N69, 000 previously are now required to cough out N170, 000. These are in addition to other fees such as exams, library, laboratory, sports, ICT etc. Ironically also, the universities have attributed the increases to rising cost of learning materials and the need to adequately fund their activities.

    These phenomenal increases have not gone down well with the student population and they are mounting serious opposition to them. They contend that given the dire economic situation in the country that has thrown many into unmitigated hardship, the high fees will inevitably squeeze children of the poor out of the university system. They would therefore want the increases reversed back to affordable levels.

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    But they did not just stop there. Students of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, took to the street to protest the increase vowing to continue until the fees are reversed downwards. The management of UNILAG was compelled by the protests to prune down the fees.  Students of the University of Jos blocked the road leading to the institution to press home their demand for a reversal while those at OAU are threatening serious action if nothing is done to checkmate the situation.

    Unfolding events have again raised fears of uncertainty within the university system. There is palpable apprehension that the protests could disrupt normal academic activities with dire consequences if something urgent is not done to diffuse the hot air.

    But more fundamentally, the situation has again brought to the fore the nagging issue of university funding and the propriety of government’s position that tuition fee in federal universities is free. Permanent Secretary of the federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo had at a public hearing by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on students’ loan said last August that no federal university is allowed to charge tuition fees.

    He had then also claimed that what the universities collect are charges to cover the cost of accommodation, power, ICT among others and that the powers to approve such charges resides with the governing boards of the various universities. 

    But the governing boards of the universities are yet to be reconstituted by the government following their dissolution by President Tinubu. Yet, the universities are in the bazaar of increasing all manner of fees to levels that create serious doubt as to whether they are to make up for tuition fees. We are faced with the contradiction of justifying these high school fees in the face of claims by the government that tuition is free in federal universities.

     It is not for nothing that the new fees are viewed with utter scepticism by the academic community. They see it as either a reintroduction of tuition fees or a prelude to it. They contend that based on the laws establishing federal universities, the universities require clearance from the National Universities Commission, NUC, and the federal ministry of education to review such fees. They find highly incongruous any attempt by the government to wash off its hand from the fee increase spree.

    Accusing fingers are also pointing at the government for being behind the scene of the fee increases in the universities. It is believed that the buck passing on who approved the fee hike may be a strategy by the government to set the students against the universities as seen in the current pattern of protests.

    The development has also not gone down well with the national president of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke. He contends that the constitution of the country mandates the federal government to provide free education and that it will be difficult to run the universities without sufficient funding. For him, the universities do not receive adequate funds for their activities even as he would want the government to fund the universities adequately.

    Those opposed to the development find a correlation between the increase in fees and the introduction of students’ loans. President Tinubu had after assuming office last May, signed the Students’ Loans Act to enable Nigerian students access loans at interest-free rates. To access the loan, a student must show evidence of being indigent even as default attracts two years imprisonment or a fine of N500, 000 or both.

    What seemed to have emerged from the above is the recurring decimal university funding has been.  It featured centrally in all the disputes between ASUU and the government often snowballing into precipitate and long-drawn strikes that diminish the worth of certificates issues by our higher institutions. It is also at issue in the current increase in school fees despite claims by the government that tuition fees are free.

    It is getting increasingly difficult to sustain the argument of free tuition in our universities in the face of the multiplicity of fees paid by students. Fee is fee, no matter the names by which it goes. Perhaps, the only difference is that these fees are bound to go even much higher should the tuition variant be added.

    More fundamentally, the situation points inexorably to the dilemma faced by the government in running the universities. It is confronted with the challenge of making education affordable to the citizenry in the face of dwindling resources. So it has to allow the individual universities to charge fees even as it claims that tuition remains free.

    The quandary the government faces was succinctly captured by the immediate past chairman, committee of vice chancellors of universities, Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo. For him, “the government does not provide overheads for universities. In a month, they provide N10 million for a university that cannot even pay for electricity bills. Most of these costs will now be covered by the students and this was what ASUU was fighting against but Nigerians will not like to listen to ASUU because of the strike”.

    That is the troubling issue-university funding. How long it will take the government to come clear on this reality is a matter of conjecture. But even as students’ loans will aid beneficiaries in offsetting some of the charges, it does not in any manner address infrastructural deficits in federal universities.

    Those were the twin purposes behind the defunct Education Bank. Sadly, Education Bank failed due to actions and inactions from the same government that set it up. It is time to come clear on the funding of federal universities.

  • How Tinubu can revive university system

    How Tinubu can revive university system

    • By Sunday Saanu 

    President Bola Tinubu is public-opinion sensitive and determined to take Nigeria to greater heights. He also seems to be committed to doing whatever that can bring greater good to a greater number of Nigerians. From all indications, Tinubu, unlike his immediate predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, is more communicative and interactive with obvious willingness to make life more bearable.

     President Tinubu who brands his government  as administration of “renewed hope”, comes across as a leader who is ready to right many, if not all the wrongs of the past, particularly the misdeeds of the last regime. It is against this background that one is persuaded to join many eminent Nigerians, in raising the issue of public university system with him. 

     There is no controverting the fact that the system is currently tottering at the brink of collapse as it is dying of insipidity. It is unfortunate that many federal universities’ laboratories have resorted to using kerosene stove in place of Bunsen burner. In metaphorical sense, the system is not only sick; it is on an intensive care unit, gasping for breath. During the Buhari regime, the system sweltered from crisis to crisis, as various campuses of universities became cloudy with so much aches and pains.

     In response to the nagging problems of poor funding, decayed infrastructure, poor welfare of workers, campus-based associations – the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) as usual, took on Buhari’s regime, after shouting themselves hoarse, embarking on an indefinite strike.

    The last strike which began on Monday February 14, 2022 and was called off on October 14, 2022 remains one of the longest with debilitating effects on the system. For eight months, the system was in a complete paralysis and rigour mortis. The then government sadly provided leadership atrophy which clearly destroyed the system. It is unfortunate that the strike was allowed to drag for that long. 

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    However, irrespective of what may be perceived as the unions’ “excesses or offences”, no responsible government should have allowed a crisis to fester for eight months. And, after eight months of starvation, stress and distress, the government invoked the “no-work, no-pay” policy, thereby withholding payment of the striking workers! Who does that? Who says ASUU members did not work during the crisis? Many of them were still stealthily supervising theses and dissertations of their students with hunger in their stomach. I know many students who completed their PhD programmes during the eight months of strike.

    Who says SSANU and NASU members were not working during the strike? Security men and women, who are members of these unions, were coming to work every day to protect government’s property. Yet, Buhari’s government was audacious enough to say those who sacrificed so much to safeguard lives and property should not be paid! And they have not been paid up till now!

    What Buhari and his ministers, the duo of Chris Ngige and Adamu Adamu, did to the university system was more than an equivalent of the coup d’état. The way they handled the face-off amounted to a deliberate destruction of the system. Bad enough, it was as if Ngige had cheap scores to settle with academics in general and ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke in particular. Ngige, displaying all the traces of tyranny and subtle sadism was just being propagandistic rather than being genuinely interested in seeking solutions.

    Let me slice it a little thinner: Buhari handled the crisis with extreme apathy and unfriendliness. While Ngige, in a fit of vengeful hubris was always presenting a phalanx of statistical inaccuracies, sarcasms, and negative innuendos, Education Minister Adamu appeared to be at loss; standing so aloof with no creative solutions to the raging storm. At the end of the day, it was a triumph of politics over rationality, with humongous spill-over effect.

    Today, many academic and non-academic staff members have resigned and migrated abroad in search of the proverbial greener pastures. Political elites forced them to seek safety elsewhere. If there is any sector that has experienced “Japa” syndrome, it is the university system as workers resign on a daily basis in all the university campuses. Refusing to pay varsity workers in different categories for four and eight months respectively is an indiscretion that is currently haunting at a higher cost to the integrity of the system.

     Indeed, if Buhari and his ministers thought they defeated and decimated the campus-based unions, they only need to look back and see the backlash of their draconian decision. In a particular department in a university, only three lecturers are left as 10 have resigned and migrated abroad, saying they could not withstand the indignity of begging to feed their families. Again, many of the young academics sponsored abroad for further studies by Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) have refused to come back to the system.

     Now, what is the way forward? This is where President Tinubu is invited to step forward and remedy this national disaster. If there was a government which inadvertently destroyed a system, there must be a government that should be credited with renewing and rebuilding. Tinubu should be able to bind the wounds inflicted on the system and dress its suppurating gashes. The first step in this regard is to pay eight months withheld salaries of the academics and four months of the SSANU members. Forget about the court ruling upholding “no-work, no-pay policy”. Tinubu shouldn’t be legalistic in this matter, rather he should be moralistic!

    How much is the salary of a professor? An average professor goes home with a little above N400,000. The payment is pittance and the wages are wretched in today’s economy. It is heinous and heartless for any government to have withheld such poor salary for eight months. Apart from the eight months’ salary withheld, ASUU in its recent release claimed that the government has stopped paying promotion arrears since 2018. SSANU has also confirmed the same claim, adding that the government has never paid 23 percent salary increase implemented among other federal workers recently.

    The university is the resource base of the nation. It is the powerhouse of the future. It is very pivotal to the country’s growth. Developed countries such as Canada, Australia, Japan, Finland and the United Kingdom place much premium on their educational system and they are better for it. In Nigeria, contrary is the case as knowledge is derided, scholarship is disparaged. Yet, we want our universities to rank among the best in the world. It is day dreaming! 

    Tinubu, without doubt, possesses substantial native wisdom, potent enough to handle the crisis. The remediation option is simple: he should promptly order the Accountant General of the Federation to release the withheld salaries; interact with union leaders and assuage their pains.

     The mood of the university workers, since last year, has been dour. From the recent strike, they have ended up with burns and blisters. The workers have paid the price of crucifixion in order to ensure that the system enjoys the glory of resurrection. The point cannot be overstated that they need healing. The healing they require urgently now is the payment of their seized salaries and other allowances. This is the road to recovery.

    •Saanu is with University of Ibadan.