State universities threaten our kids’ future

State universities threaten our kids’ future

“We have not been paid for the past eight months.” Resident Doctors at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Osogbo. Back page, PUNCH, June 19, 2015.

ON the same page Professor Ayo Olukotun, had this to report. “A time there was when some state-owned universities excelled in certain disciplines nationally and retained outstanding academics in their workforce. Today, that cheerful trend had been totally reversed as more than a fair number of these institutions are run on a hand to mouth basis..”. Olukotun was guilty of under-statement. There is no state university in Nigeria today which is not “run on a hand to mouth basis”.

Not even, the State of Excellence, Lagos has escaped the sad fate which had befallen others throughout the country. With few exceptions, sending a kid to a state university implies expecting a half-baked or even unbaked product back afterwards. If Olukotun had stepped into the premises of some of the state universities I had been unfortunate to visit he would shed tears of blood for Nigeria. Most of them simply lack “the idea of the university” as it is globally understood. And all the federal universities established by Jonathan are not far behind. In fact, some are worse.

Osun State has inexplicably been in the news, more than any other state and the picture of the staff carrying placards is only the latest embarrassment to the state government. Before that, the state was in the news for sacking the Governing Board, the Vice Chancellor and the Deputy Vice Chancellor on the recommendations of a Visitation panel. At least a few more professors will depart the university as a result.

Lagos State University, LASU, had been the theatre for a prolonged battle between the VC, some academic staff, Non-Academic Staff and students. There is probably nobody connected with LASU who is not in the trenches doing battle against somebody else. Is this a university in Nigeria or ISIS versus Syria, Iraq and Kurds? How can meaningful learning be undertaken under a siege environment?

The last two examples have been cited just to let Professor Olukotun and our readers know that poor and inadequate finance constitutes only part of the problem in our state universities. It was Professor Ajibade Rokosu, LASU, who implanted in my mind the concept of the “idea of a university”; which, if lacking will render even the most well-endowed university on earth worthless.

In Nigeria, “the idea of the university” is frequently absent because state universities, being creations of politicians, rather than educationists, are politicized  ab initio.  Locations are based on political considerations and the top appointments follow the same pattern.

Semblance ofdiscipline

That said, it must be acknowledged that poor finance has now become so pervasive and crippling that even the best faculties and administrators will find it impossible to maintain any semblance of discipline in the university. Eight months unpaid salaries, if true, by any measure imaginable is inexcusable and it raises the question: can the states no longer afford to run their universities?

The answer to that question might trigger the greatest socio-political outrage in the country. Already, Nigerians are becoming visibly angry about the outrageous remuneration package which the drunkards in charge of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Financial Commission, RMAFC, had granted to elected officials and their appointed aides.

It seems, and it is obscene, that in a nation where 70% of the people still live on less than $2 (N400) a day, elected officials will be granted “Wardrobe Allowance”. Were they campaigning in the nude? Such almost criminal waste of our financial resources account for our inability to fund education properly.

We are now at the cross roads; we must now decide whether our current economic models for funding state [even Federal] universities are sustainable in the long run. Obviously, they no longer work. It is our collective responsibility to decide whether or not parents/students must assume a greater percentage of the cost of providing quality university or not.