The State of the Nigerian Public Universities

By

Mukhtar Bello

belloonline@yahoo.co.uk

      Universities worldwide are facing increasing pressures to produce 'knowledge workers', to respond to perceived competition dynamics, and to maintain and improve quality standards. In Nigeria, there is a growing concern by the public on the quality of university education and the relevance of the universities curriculum to national development. Part of the problems attributed to these setbacks include: poor funding; lack of infrastructures; lack of frequent curriculum review; inadequate staff training and welfare; students overpopulation; frequent strikes by both the academic and supporting staff etc.  It is very unfortunate that necessary facilities such as sufficient power supply, enough and decent lecture halls, basic chemicals and equipment in laboratories and properly equipped libraries are lacking. Obviously, public universities in Nigeria need to improve a lot in order to parallel the global standard in imparting knowledge, conducting applicable researches, and be responsive to the needs of our socioeconomic development. Elsewhere in the world, many universities have been remarkably adaptable, demonstrating the capacity to continuously re-invent themselves whilst apparently continuing to pursue their fundamental mission and sustaining their core values. 

University education is supposed to provide students with the general ability to think critically and independently, and the specialist competences of their subject. Another aim of university education is to promote changes in the values and attributes of students. However, it is sad to mention that nowadays many of our university graduates are academically incompetent and lack the discipline required for positive contribution to national development. Eventhough the academic staff, students and parents do share in the blame; justifiably the bulk of it is on our leaders.  By many counts, Nigeria ranks among the most resource-endowed nations in the world. Unfortunately, in the last two to three decades, most of those saddled with the responsibility of leading the nation have been unable to prudently utilize our resources and give the educational sector its due attention. Infact, our country stands a risk of having a gloomy future as a nation, because a society without good education and discipline cannot prosper. This is the reason why many countries commit a substantial part of their resources to education, which is supposed to generate knowledge that will sustain a nation in future.

However, it should be mentioned that university administrators should also widen their horizon, develop a creative ability and legitimate initiative to generate funds to supplement their grants in order to cater for their many and diverse needs. This could be through efforts to access research funds from donor and project management finance agencies, collaboration with the industries, parent’s contribution, endowments, alumni support and other forms of private sector support. Diversifying their resource base will definitely make them less dependent on government subvention, which greatly weakens their capacity to meet their overall mandate. Management strategy is arguably one of the most important things a university employs, enabling all of its core activities of teaching, research and wider social and economic services to be optimally achieved[1]. It involves a thorough knowledge of the institution’s present strengths and weaknesses and making of choices about the future. Good analysis and intelligent choices will ensure the exploitation of opportunities, the avoidance of disaster and improved reputational positioning. Apart from poor funding, another serious problem facing our universities is lack of good maintenance culture for the few facilities available.

The last administration tried to introduce some reforms in the educational sector in an attempt to address many of the problems our educational institutions are facing. The advocates of the reforms clearly mentioned that the dilapidation of facilities, non-availability of basic amenities and mismanagement of scarce resources in the nation’s institutions necessitated it. That is, there is no enabling environment to make both the academic staff and the students to realize even their normal potentials not to talk of a robust system that pushes them to edges beyond their natural abilities. It is apparent that in most of our universities the facilities put in place when they were first established could not even be maintained not to talk of providing modern ones. That is not to say that there are no facilities maintenance centres in our universities but hardly do they function properly.

In 1986, the National Universities Commission in collaboration with the then Overseas Development Agency and European Economic Community set up five pilot Equipment Maintenance and Development Centres (EMDCs) in five Nigerian Federal Universities at Zaria, Ile-Ife, Nsukka, Calabar and Bauchi[2]. The aim of the project was to establish maintenance culture in our universities. The pilot centres were supposed to serve as models for other universities to draw experience and expertise for establishing their own Equipment Maintenance Centres (EMCs). A facility support from the World Bank in 1996 was used to establish the EMCs in many more universities. These centres, if properly utilized, can help in maintaining the few available equipment and even develop some basic ones needed in some laboratories in our universities, which also enhance their work force skills. But a common problem to virtually all the EMDCs/EMCs is poor funding, lack of staff training and inadequate support by the university management. It has been suggested that a central laboratory should be established in each university where expensive equipment required by many departments for teaching and research could be shared². This idea if properly implemented will definitely enhance effective utilization of the scarce resources and promote inter-disciplinary research.

Another important indicator of good education system is the quality of the academic staff and their numerical strength. Apart from employing qualified academic staff, there is a need for them to have good training while on the job. In the early years of running the university education in Nigeria, many academic staff had the opportunity of studying in universities in Europe and North America that are among the best in the world for their training. Nowadays, very few have such chances due to inadequate government scholarships and intense competition for fellowships. The number of academic staff is also insufficient. The staff-students ratio in most departments in our universities is very high to the extent that there is no good interaction for proper guidance and monitoring. However, the academic staff can still make efforts to secure fellowships and research grants from the few sources available. In addition, the academic staff should also be very responsible in discharging their duties. A lot of us hide under the excuse of poor working environment to neglect our assigned responsibilities. There are many cases of non-going to class to teach, complete neglect of research and inappropriate relationship with the students. We should remind ourselves that improper behaviour is least expected from those charged with the responsibilities of training others. 

Apart from the need for good training for the academic staff, it is equally important that the welfare package in terms of salary and other benefits are good enough to attract and maintain the brightest and best minds. Even though the welfare package has been improved within the last eight years, it is still among the lowest in the world. Many lecturers still feel the necessity of having extra jobs instead of fully concentrating on their basic tasks within their university positions. In many instances when the university academic staff complain of poor welfare package, the government officials give an excuse of lack of enough resources to respond to such demand.  However, the same government officials would not be ashamed to wastefully use the state’s resources for their own welfare. The recent renovation contract for the Speaker’s residence and that of the deputy that rocked the Federal House of Representatives further exposed the extravagant attitude of our leaders and the imbalance in our system. In the said contract, N71, 895,000:00 was approved for the furnishing and fittings in the Speaker’s residence out of which N15, 000, 000:00 (equivalent to four-year salary of a university professor) was meant for bed sheets and curtains[3]. Despite the clear extravagant nature of that contract award, the National Assembly Director of Information and Publications at a press conference said, “due process was followed, at every stage in the award of the contracts”. That is to say, they see nothing wrong in the award! It has also been reported that in the 2008 proposed budget, N1.301 billion has been allocated for feeding and refreshment in the State House[4]. The breakdown shows a daily spending of N2.3 million on refreshment! If that is true, hardly can it be said to be prudent in a country where millions of people look for what to eat to survive on daily basis. It is obvious that we really need to be more serious if we want to achieve prosperity as a nation.

Because of the numerous problems facing our public universities, one tends to wonder whether the government is aware of this pathetic situation. But there came a revelation that once every five years, the Federal Government constitutes Presidential Visitation Panels to all Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education[5]. Membership of the Panels is made up of professionals and distinguished Nigerians who are not involved in the management of the tertiary institutions as either chief executives or council members at the time of their appointment. The purpose of the visitation is to review the performance of the institutions over a five-year period and advise the government accordingly. Their terms of reference cover; condition of physical infrastructures, quality of instruction and instructional facilities, management of finances, and relationship between the management on the one hand and staff and students on the other. Based on the Panels report, white papers are prepared by the Federal Ministry of Education and forwarded to the institutions’ Governing Councils for implementation after approval by Mr. President. It then shows that the government is fully aware of the sad condition that our public universities have found themselves in and does not have deficit of good ideas and policies but most often these are only paper work because hardly are they implemented to achieve the desired goals.

Infact, to show that the government knows the situation even better than some of us, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission recently at a press conference said, “Over one million candidates scramble for just over 200, 000 spaces available annually for admission into the universities. In the face of inadequate and obsolete infrastructures and equipment, poor library facilities, inadequate academic staff in number and quality, lack of relevance of academic programmes, low level of funding, cultism, unstable university calendar, particularly in unionized federal and state universities, most universities still go beyond the carrying capacity allotted to them”[6]. He also said, “There are more than 331 unapproved programmes in the Nigerian University System out of 2605, in 13 disciplines”. But the question that begs for an answer is whether the Executive Secretary is complaining to the public or he is telling the public that the NUC has not been able to discharge its obligations in accordance with the law. NUC is by law saddled with the responsibility of regulating the orderly development of universities in Nigeria through accreditation and quality assurance, master planning, general policy and implementation including, monitoring[7]. In my opinion, the more appropriate thing for the Executive Secretary would be to tell the public that the NUC has forced the concern universities to closed down those programmes and stipulate a severe penalty for any university that opens a programme without following proper operational guidelines.

In conclusion, it is high time that the federal and state governments become more concern in creating conducive environment for learning and research in our universities. Our universities should also rethink their missions, objectives and strategies to turn threats into opportunities if they really want to have a respected position within the global academic community. It is known that time plays an important role in the perception of education as an agent of progress and change. Education system of a given society could remain static and stagnant if it does not respond to change as dictate by time. Thus, all the stakeholders should contribute, cooperate and discharge their responsibilities diligently in order to make the Nigerian Public Universities globally competitive and locally relevant to the needs of our socioeconomic development.