The House of Representatives, through the office of its Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, last week in Abuja, hosted a special national summit on how to reform the nation’s tertiary education. JOSHUA EGBODO reviews some issues therefrom
The prodding
Over the years, there had been recurring industrial actions by both academic and non-academic staff of tertiary institutions in Nigeria, with majority of the issues bothering on welfare and general poor funding on the institutions.
The latest which got Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila deeply involved in the opinion of many, was the about eight-month long strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The worrisome long history of academic calendar distortions may have prodded Gbajabiamila into the move for the possibility of seeing a holistic and long term solution to the perennial problem.
What the Speaker said
In reiterating the need to reposition the nation’s tertiary education, Speaker Gbajabiamila at the opening of the two-day event last Tuesday said the current state of tertiary education in Nigeria has called for drastic measures to be taken if the future of the country is of any concern for Nigerians, pointing out that Nigeria’s greatest resource is neither her oil nor other abundant mineral deposits.
“Our cause is more than to seek solutions to the challenges of tertiary education in Nigeria. In fact, we are here today on a mission to save Nigeria.
“A just society cannot guarantee its citizens equal outcomes any more than a doctor can promise eternal good health. What we can, and must do, is ensure all our citizens are afforded equal opportunities to succeed or fail on their own. For Nigeria to reach its potential and achieve the greatness we are capable of, we must invest in our people.
“In this generation, social, economic and political development is, and will continue to be powered by advancements in information and communication technologies. We must provide the resources to modernise and improve our education infrastructure and provide the right training for young people from primary through tertiary education. This goes to the heart of our survival as a nation and as a people.
“Time was when the tertiary institutions in our country were centres of excellence, comparable to the best institutions elsewhere in the world. There was a time when our brothers and sisters from across Africa and even farther away sought out our institutions, and we welcomed them in droves. That time is no more. It used to be that a student admitted to the university knew the date of their graduation and graduated on that day…
“Therefore, the central public policy challenge is the conflict between the competing objectives of access and quality. How do we fund a quality tertiary education without imposing costs that make access to quality education impossible for most people?
“I don’t have the answer to that question. I have my own ideas, and I have, as a legislator, sought to advance those ideas through the legislative policy process”, he submitted.
Stakeholders’ inputs
In attendance were former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was one of the panellists, the federal ministry of education through the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opia, a select number of former Vice Chancellors of universities and the ASUU.
Obasanjo declared that the issue of about 20 million-out-of-school children in Nigeria might culminate into another monster of Boko Haram insurgency if the students were not sought after and put back to school, as according to him, the number constituted 10 percent of the country’s population which should not be ignored.
“The greatest resources we have in this country are the people. How many are we today? We are about 216 million and that is a great resource. Tertiary education is very important. But education, particularly education that has left 20 million of our children out of school and those twenty million have no access to education.
They cannot be effectively part of nation building because they have not had the opportunity to develop their innate capacity to the extent that they can be useful to themselves, to their families and to their community let alone their nation, let alone Africa…
“So, what are the issues? The issues to me are that we are cutting more than we can chew. Who is looking at our population ahead of time, five years from now and ten years from now, and what can we do about it? And apart from food which is very important, who are the people thinking about that and working forward on that. After food and after health, the next important aspect of our life is education….”, he said.
The Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nana Opia on his part, said increasing population was affecting the funding of education, adding that that the Universities have misused their autonomy. “Tertiary Education Trust Fund TEFUND had released over N2.3 trillion to the various institutions to create more infrastructure, support research and improve documentation but with the increasing population there was no much impact.
“On behalf of the federal ministry of education, I extend all my sincere appreciation to the the Right Honourable Speaker, Femi Gbajabimila and his team for passionately intervening in face- off with ASUU and organising this summit which I believe is continuation of the speaker’s commitment to ensure that the legislature contributes to creating stable environment for our tertiary education sector.
“As more universities were established to improve our access to the growing population, the dwindling economic realities made it difficult for government to sustain the adequate funding, to maintain the quality of teaching and learning, infrastructure as well as maintain the structures necessary for attracting global talents needed to sustain intellectualism. This opening of opportunity for the private sector to become engaged in university education.
“Several attempts to reform the funding structure by TEFUND (released) over N2.3 trillion to the various institutions to create more infrastructure, support research and improve documentation.
“However, the increasing population with its associated increased demands for tertiary education has made it difficult to satisfy the various demands for funding by government. Funding of tertiary education is undoubtedly, the underlined reason for their decline.
“I wish to inform this gathering that there are 2015 universities, 4 inter-university centres , 219 Polytechnics/Monotechnics, 115 Colleges of Education, 147 Innovation/Enterprise Institutions in Nigeria. Of all these, there are 49 federal universities, 40 federal Polytechnics, 27 colleges of education, 19 Monotechnics, 25 vocational enterprise institutions, 7 innovation institutions under the purview of the federal ministry of education….
“The image of Nigerian public universities has over the years most significantly distorted. We can remember with nostalgia how Nigerian universities used to be citadel of learning and attracted scholars and students from all over the world”, he said.
Making separate remarks, Professors Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Hillary Edeoga and Hamman Sa’ad, all, former vice chancellors of university of Lagos, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Abia State and Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger state, respectively called on companies, religious organizations corporate bodies and individuals to invest in the country’s education sector.
“Like the former president said, it is not only the government that should be involved in the funding of tertiary education and the lower level of education in Nigeria. The community will need to be involved, the Mosques, the Churches, the leaders we have to be involved and also the companies that we have in Nigeria we need to involved.
“It is not only in the issue of awarding scholarship to some of the students that matters, there is need for them to invest in tertiary education in Nigeria by funding specific projects in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and monotechnics.
“The reason why I am saying this is based on my little experience in the University of Lagos, many of the companies that we have in Nigeria are not participating in funding tertiary education in Nigeria. The communities that we have in Nigeria are expecting something from the institutions”, Ogundipe, one of the Professors said.
In his intervention, the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan who was represented by the Senate Majority Leader, Ibrahim Gobir said the government had not option but to find solutions to the myriad of issues. “We have often also been witnesses to industrial actions by education sector related unions, in what additionally points to the inadequacies in the sector. What this means is that we are being challenged to up the ante in the process of finding solutions to the myriad of issues, frequently leading to disagreements”, he said.
But the controversial student loan Bill
During the event, Speaker Gbajabiamila recalled how in 2019, he sponsored, and the House of Representatives passed the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Bill to provide access to education financing for students who qualify for such. “That Bill is in the Senate, awaiting concurrence”, he stated, adding that he did not know why it was unattended to as expected.
In reaction to the information, Obasanjo expressed skepticism on whether the right people would have access to the funds. “Any Nigerian child should never be deprived of the right of education for lack of means. Hon. Speaker said to us that he has initiated a bill for loan. I believe it is very important. The point is that can we run it without corruption? Can we bring integrity into it? Can we really make sure that only those who deserve get the loan? Now, my own children should not go to university and be asking for loan”, the former president stated.
The National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) however plainly rejected the proposal for an Education Bank and the students loan scheme. National President of NANS, Comrade Usman Barembu, made their position known during the Summit, the loan scheme would be a strategy to increase tuition fees in Nigerian Universities, a move he said the body would not accept.
Also, ASUU took the path of opposition to the proposal.
Gbajabiamila allays fears
Speaking on the second and final day of the event, Gbajabiamila, last Wednesday cautioned that the future of the teeming young people in the country should be of concern to all considering the prevailing state of tertiary education in the country. According to him, cynicism against the Bill runs counter to proffering solutions to the challenges of funding confronting Nigerian students in public tertiary institutions, who will have their dreams and aspirations truncated due to lack of access to tertiary education.
Alternative funding as option?
The minister of state for education lamented that despite the federal government’s enactment of the universities autonomy Act which amongst others made new provisions for autonomous, management and reorganization of universities in Nigeria, that in practice, administrative, political and financial autonomy were the only successful aspects, as government is responsible for almost 100 percent funding of public universities. What options are therefore available?
Gbajabiamila promised the publication of a journal, with recommendations as fallout of the summit for policy makers to act on, saying it will not be an exercise in futility. “We hope it will get to the President before the expiration of this administration. But a framework of student loans is only one idea. I believe there are many more.
“The conversations we hold at this Summit and the submissions we have received will form the basis of a policy action plan and implementation framework we will unveil shortly after the conclusion of the summit”, he said. To pundits, it is therefore all hope that the expected reality is birthed from the process.
