Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the Academic Staff Union of Institutions, has stated that one of the issues responsible for the country’s decreasing tertiary education level is the formation of universities with the inappropriate financial pattern.
He made the remarks while giving a paper at the 14th Ralph Opara Memorial Lecture, titled “State of Tertiary Education in Nigeria: Identifying Historical Issues and Misconceptions, Contemplating Solutions,” held over the weekend in Benin by the National Association of Seadogs.
The ASUU President also stated that the government’s manner of appointment and recruiting into state-owned universities has contributed to the situation.
According to Osedeke, the rot in the country’s university education began under the administrations of Shehu Shagari and Babagida, when they supposedly sold the country to the Brethren Wood Institutions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Prior to the two regimes, he said, the country’s tertiary education was regarded among the finest in the world.
The ASUU President, on the other hand, urged that a paradigm change be implemented in terms of finance, governance, and interference from political organizations and entrenched interests in order for Nigerian institutions to regain their dignity of position.
“One of the major problems facing the tertiary institution is the establishment of universities without template for funding.
“Also, the method of appointment and recruitment into state-owned universities by the government has also been a problem.
Earlier in his opening remark, the National President of NAS, Abiola Owoaje, said that the environment of learning and intellectualism is crucial to the group, noting that the Ralph Opara Memorial Lecture has become a rallying point for deep introspection on national and international topical issues.
He said, “This intellectual platform keeps evolving as a versatile crucible for cerebral and stimulating discourses geared towards expanding the frontiers of knowledge and interrogating complex socio-political and economic formulas while championing informed, radical and bold solutions for the good of the community of humanity.
“The theme for this year’s lecture reflects our deep concern for the decadence that tertiary education has become in Nigeria.
“Many of us were schooled in Nigeria when our tertiary institutions were indeed citadels of learning, intellectual fervour flamed, and ideological orientations were anchored on learning and making Nigeria progressively great.
“Now the situation is pathetic. Our citadels of learning have become breeding grounds for gangsterism, extremist elements and festering criminality.
“Also, successive governments have paid lip service to the development of education and are bent on destroying tertiary institutions as they did to primary and secondary education,” he noted.
In his welcome address, the Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Temi Akporhonor, said that addressing issues affecting tertiary education is a welcome development, especially at this time in the nation’s history.
