The State Of
Higher Education In Nigeria
By
Roy
Chikwem
roysailor@hotmail.com
January 2, 2006
The recent findings on the state of higher education in Nigeria as conducted by
the World Bank and UNESCO had confirmed the degradation of the Nigerian
educational system. Nigeria was a country that produced world-class university
graduates that could compete with their counterparts around the world and hard
work was their watchword. Today, we only produce the worst set of uneducated
tertiary graduates that cannot structure a simple sentence.
Prior to the Nigerian oil industry evolution in the late 1960s, the Nigerian
economy was wholly-funded by revenue generated from cash crops such as
groundnut, cocoa and palm oil, all produced from the northern, western and
eastern part of Nigeria respectively. Then, the fruits of hard work were
imbedded in the heart and mind of every student because they saw how hardworking
their parents were on the farms and moral education was part of family
responsibilities. Today, students are unable to compete in a healthy academic
atmosphere due to the destructive role of the family, government, and the
university community.
Regrettably, most parents lack all ingredients to be called fathers and mothers
because the family structure has been destroyed. These so-called parents hardly
oversee the growth and development of their children, rather they chase after
the fruits of the world. Family values and respect are now things of the past.
These parents prefer to buy admission letters for their children rather than
encouraging them to properly prepare for their examinations. And for the parents
who refuse to engage in these illegal and immoral practices, they are victimized
and their children end up staying at home for years until their parents or the
students learn how to beat or cheat the system. Most of these parents always use
a famous proverb to justify their unwarranted actions, which goes as follows:
"If you can’t beat them, then join them". But these parents fail to realize that
they are destroying the future of their children and unborn children without
consideration of the long-term consequences and implications.
Recently, domestic and foreign corporations based in Nigeria like Shell, Mobil,
Chevron, Texaco, Citibank, Accenture, Nestle, Cadbury, Guinness are all on a
massive recruitment drive to hire Nigerian graduates from foreign institutions
based in Europe, Asia, America, South Africa, and including other West African
countries like Ghana, Libya. These corporations lack trust and confidence in the
Nigerian educational system. However, we discovered corporations were willing to
offer high paying salaries ranging from $30,000 to $150,000 annually, which
include the full paid vacation aboard, relocation expenses, five-star
accommodation, housing allowance, resettlement allowance, medical benefits, fuel
allowance, vehicle maintenance allowance, security allowance, stock options,
housing loan, children tuition allowance and annual bonus. But the Nigerian
trained graduates are offered practically nothing compared to their foreign
trained counterparts. These Nigerian trained graduates are offered salaries
between $2,000 and $5,000 annually without any benefits.
These corporations justified
their actions based on the fact that, they spend huge millions of Naira in
retraining Nigerian graduates to perform their jobs, which were supposed to be
learnt at their respective institution of higher learning. However, they claim
that foreign trained graduates are well-trained and equipped to carry out their
respective duties. For example, Shell Nigeria has an intensive one-year program
for Nigerian trained graduates to improve the technical knowledge of graduates
before they may be “considered” for employment into Shell Nigeria. The program
is called "Shell Intensive Training Program (SITP)" and it is automatically
waived for all foreign trained graduates. In addition, the Nigerian government
and its agencies prefer to award contracts to foreign companies rather than
Nigerian companies.
The Nigerian government has also played a destructive role in destroying the
educational system in Nigeria. Students now go to school on empty stomach
coupled with lack of clean water and bad sanitary condition. There are no
textbooks to be found in the libraries and lack of improved teaching
technological equipments. Students are forced to "learn" in dilapidated
buildings. However, most Nigerian students are naturally gifted and talented,
and they still excel beyond our imagination with all the odds against them.
In the past, Institution like Yaba College of Technology, University of Ibadan,
Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University and
University of Nsukka were all real centers of academic excellence. But the
Federal Government of Nigeria went ahead to create and established a
governmental agency called Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to
regulate admission standards into Nigerian institutions of higher learning. This
unprecedented, unwarranted and mismanaged agency then introduced and encouraged
schemes like catchments areas, cut off marks, federal character, state of origin
(instead of state of birth) without testing its limitations and effects on the
educational system.
Unfortunately, prospective
students into the universities and polytechnics simply have to bribe their way
into these institutions. These are usually done with the aid of JAMB officials
under the falsehood of Vice Chancellors (VC), Deans, Head of Department (HOD)
lists, and other all-outrageous admission lists. Hence, these students are
illegally admitted into the institution and they find it difficult to maintain
their academic grades. Then, these students resort to cultism, prostitution and
armed robbery as a means of remaining on campus. Most regrettably, hard work and
academic excellence are no longer the yardstick by which academic success are
been measured in Nigeria.
The "no hard work syndrome" has
eaten so deeply into the educational system in Nigeria, which an ex-speaker in
Nigerian House of Representatives had to illegally acquire a fraudulent degree,
purportedly awarded by the University of Toronto, Canada. Consequently, the
said politician had to step down from his position. But using a powerful
network, the same ex-speaker has since been on the payroll of a Nigerian
governmental agency. What a shame?
Some Vice Chancellors, governors and top government officials have secured loans
from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without utilizing or implementing
those funds into any educational projects. Rather, these loans are converted to
personal loans for purchasing big houses aboard, marrying beautiful wives,
driving luxury cars and acquiring outrageous chieftaincy titles. Today, Nigeria
has a national debt of $35 Billion and we are nowhere close in paying off the
debt.
There are also some students who are far richer than their lecturers and
parents; hence, they seek admission into tertiary institutions, just to have
bachelors and higher degrees to their names. These students dislike the ideology
of hard work and merited academic certificate; rather they prefer to take the
easiest means. Prostitution houses or rings are now prevalence in institutions
like UNILAG, UNIBEN, and among other first, second, third generation, private
and state universities. The prostitution activities on campus are widely
patronized by lecturers and by highly connected individuals in the society.
Unfortunately, well-connected students use their illegally
acquired wealth to influence the outcome of their examinations and they use
cultism to terrorize those who fail to bend to their rules. Most of these
students are already murderers, rapists and armed robbers before they graduate.
In fact, many of these so-called connected students align themselves with
government officials and they display their wealth on campus openly. The result
of this phenomenon is that graduating students pass through school without
learning anything and they are faced with their limitations when they cannot
perform at their place of employment or they cannot compete at the job market.
However, most lecturers should share the blame for the state of the Nigerian
educational system. Some lecturers refuse to pass students until they buy their
prepared lecture note "handouts" or sex is offered by their female students
against their will. This situation is so bad that it is a living nightmare for
female students including single and married students because these lecturers
would make sure they fail these students until sex is exchanged for passing
grades. And, some lecturers are converting to part-time politicians and others
have decided to join the corporate world, whereby polluting the noble profession
of teaching.
There is a massive migration of
extraordinary professors into foreign institutions because there are no
incentives to advance their profession in Nigeria and the Nigerian government
chooses to pay them whatever they feel. These professors are highly-under paid
and lack all adequate infrastructures to carry out their duties effectively and
efficiently in Nigeria. Some institutions of higher learning in Nigeria are
prevalent in "awarding" or better still selling honorary degrees to the highest
bidder. The good healthy relationship between lecturers and students are no
longer present, instead these lecturers take advantage of these students for
their own personal gains.
Hence, we can no longer continue to pass blames among each other without dealing
with the issues at stake. The Nigerian educational system has a problem and it
needs a solution. It is also time to dismantle or reorganize the role of the
Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Nigerian tertiary
administration need to redesign the curriculum to focus more on self-employment
rather than working for established corporations. The Nigerian government needs
to put into place a program that would seek to encourage the return of
professors and professionals who are presently in the Diaspora.
Finally, the Federal Government of
Nigeria need to curb the violence of cultism in the Nigerian tertiary
institutions by incorporating the recommendations of Ben Oguntuase (former
Capone, National Association of Seadogs - Pyrates Confraternity) issued during
the Anti-Cult Week Symposium at the University of Lagos on November 3, 1999. He
proposed that the leadership of all the fraternities (cult groups) in Nigeria
should get together with representatives of the university community and the
Ministry of Education should constitute a National Inter-fraternity Council (NIFC).
NIFC should be charged with the following responsibilities:
