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Need For Accelerated University Education Development In The North By Professor S. Mustafa, FNSE, FAS University education development worldwide shows a direct relationship between the number of university graduates produced by a country and its economic and technological advancement. For example, United States with population twice that of Nigeria, has over 2,000 degree awarding institutions. Japan, having almost the same population as Nigeria, has over 600 universities. United Kingdom, having half our population, has 100 universities. Nigeria with 67 universities (Federal, state and private), would seem to have too many. The situation however, is that, this number is still far short of the requirements of our youths qualified for university education. Indeed, if Nigeria is to attain a respectable level of technological development, and perform significant role in the rapidly emerging information and knowledge age, it must either double the present number of universities or increase significantly, the students’ enrolment. In order to keep pace with the population growth rate from there on, it would be necessary to double the number of universities every 25 years. The latter option though would appear straight forward, unfortunately however, would worsen the situation of overcrowded and dearth of quality teaching staff in most of Nigerian universities. Looking at the problem in another way, the number of pupils seeking admission into Nigerian universities through the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) over the past five years has averaged one million every year. This is projected to grow to two million every year within the next few years. The situation would therefore, require urgent measures, considering the few vacancies available in all Nigerian universities, currently estimated between 150,000-200,000/year. The magnitude of the problem facing us can best be appreciated if we consider the current population of Nigeria, projected at 134million from the 1991 census figures. The estimated population of youths in the higher education age group of 18-25 years has been projected (using medium growth variant) at 49million by the year 2005. Applying the half of the half rule, which means that, if only half of this number would be in higher institutions and, half of those in higher institutions were to be in the universities, a total of 12.25 million youths would be expected to seek placements into universities. The total enrolment at present in the 67 universities is estimated to be less than one million. In the case of the 19 northern states, excluding FCT with projected population of 70.7million, which is slightly more than 52% of Nigeria’s total population, the number of youths in the tertiary age group is, about 10 million. Using the same approach as above, it is to be expected that about 2.5million youths will seek admission into the universities every year. To absorb this number and if the total enrolment in each university is restricted to 20,000, there must be provision for 117 universities. There are however only 22 universities, including those recently approved by the National Universities Commission. Thus, there is at the moment, a shortfall of 97 universities. The results for most of the 19 northern states analysed and giving attainment as shown in the Table below are not that cheering. The overall attainment for the northern states is about 11%. Five states namely, Jigawa, Kebbi, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara each, has zero percent attainment. They should strive to establish their own universities otherwise; they would be continually left behind. Going by their populations, six states, namely, Adamawa, Kwara, Nasarawa, Gombe, Benue and Kaduna desrve commendation. #Table showing the expected and actual number of universities by the year 2005 in the 19 Northern States and their rankings (FCT not included)
· Ranking was carried out such that if more than one state tied for one position, the population of a state was taken into account. The state with lower population is rated higher than the other if they have the same number of universities. CONCLUSION The governments of northern state can no longer hide under the pretext that there are no enough students to fill even existing vacancies in Nigerian universities. University education would appear to be the basic requirement by all employers nowadays worldwide. The greatest investment one would make is in university education towards the training of our youths as future leaders. States that have already established their own universities have shown that by making due sacrifice; a university can be funded from state resources. It does not stand to reason that primary and secondary education should be developed first, before embarking on tertiary education. This is because, besides being integrated, university education has been shown to stimulate the growth of the lower tiers of education. Private investment is also necessary towards accelerating the development of university education in the north. # Data Source: Nigeria population census 1991 analysis: National and state projections, Vol. VI, Publication of National Population Commission, Abuja, Nigeria, 2002, pp270.
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