Nigeria as a country has increasingly been advancing on the path of literacy. This leads to a global acknowledgement of the existence of very intellectuals that have contributed immensely and still hold a lot to give to the world particularly, on the shoe of academic pursuits.
Whilst the country is famous, the quest for knowledge is getting increasingly higher just as procurement of topmost academic qualifications reigns.
The country is presently endowed with professors and other academics in numerous fields of endeavours. Hence, Nigeria indubitably submits to the world best designers, technicians, experienced agriculturalists, professional lawyers, certified doctors, creative engineers and other highly ranked expertise contributing to the world and making it pride in many respect.
But, conversely, none of the over 130 accredited Nigerian universities was able to made the list of the 1000 best global varsities going by the records of ratings of the Center for World Universities ranking from 2015, 16, and 17 except for last year, that some universities made the list.
This didn’t come as a surprise but also a great misfortune to our collective being as a nation that is geared through knowledge and the pursuits for literacy. It is equally worth of note that the indices use by the Center for World Universities ranking in measuring performance of the universities is not limited to number of staff of the institutions and who they are.
It is basically about what they have to offer to their institutions and to the world, it is about what the institutions could produce or capable of producing. Other areas which the center carried it performance evaluation involve checks on sophisticated facilities that could guarantee practice and offer pragmatic skills, the records of international prizes and rewards won by the institutions and what have view.
Nothing in these areas will enable one stand objectively to realise that our expertise are more of theoretical than practical. It may also be noted that our varsities are lagging in terms of access to useful operational infrastructure.
Only in Nigeria you’ll find a graduate of electrical and electronics engineering that could not make an accurate wearing of electrical connection, a country that brings professional lawyers squatting in legal Chambers, pharmacist without pharmaceutical centers, agriculturalists in aviation sites, medical doctors in oil exploration sites and much more regretting states one could think of.
These factors obviously leave us way beyond and enable other varsities from Europe and America scaling ahead, thriving to clinch greater tops. It is therefore necessary that we now focus on practical abilities so as to improve professionalism and develop better skills. We must always remain focused and obliged to meeting up the needed requirements to attain the rating we desire.
Joshua Ebube Ekwu,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri
