Nigeria had her first university as far back as before independence and since then the number of universities has continued to grow in leaps and bounds. Now, tertiary education is no longer the business of the government alone but it has also involved private individuals.
However, looking at the founding and early years of Nigerian Universities compared to the present condition of those universities, a question that would run through one’s mind is; are these Universities getting better or worse?
Foremost nationalists like the late Chief Anthony Enahoro, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiweand the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, who fought for our independence did so not through arm and ammunition, but through the power of the pen which they derived through education.
The vision and power of education that the foremost nationalists had which brought them to the limelight influenced the early government of the 60s to invest in qualitative education.
At that time, primary education to university level was well funded by the government. No first generation university in Nigeria at that time lacked
Quality and basic infrastructure, as students were motivated by the government to study.
The University of Ibadan 1948, University of Nigeria, Nsukka 1960, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 1962, ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile-Ife 1962, University of Lagos 1962 and University of Benin 1970 were unarguably the best universities in Africa.
Research shows that foreign lecturers and students from the United Kingdom (UK), India and Ghana and other countries, were testament to the quality of Nigeria’s Education sector in those days as foreign students and teachers enrolled for admission and teaching jobs.
Also, in the Nigeria universities of then, few students who schooled overseas returned to Nigeria, as there was nothing attractive to them there that could keep them behind; not even job opportunities because Nigeria currency was stronger than theirs and on graduation day, it was a common sight to see multi- national companies queuing to employ best graduating students from different disciplines.
Today, all these have become history. Nigeria is no longer the pride and giant of Africa as it pride itself, the glory has departed, Nigeria students now even have to travel to neighbouring countries like Cotonou, Togo, Ghana etc to get education.
In the world university rankings, only University of Ibadan was listed among the 980 top universities in the world. It was ranked 801.
Research shows that South Africa tops African universities in the global ranking by producing eight universities among the 980 top global universities, leading with University of Cape Town that was ranked 148. Even Ghana beat Nigeria to it, as University of Ghana was ranked 601.
Egypt also had eight qualified universities in the global ranking as American University in Cairo, Soliag University and Suez Canal University were ranked 601. Morocco had three universities ranked 801, Algeria 801 position and Kenya also 801 position.
The statistics shows that Nigeria’s best university is now ranked alongside Algeria, Kenya and Morocco. And it prided itself as the giant of Africa with 149 universities.
Also, in the Nigeria University of nowadays, hardly will you see a university lecturer who doesn’t relate these days’ education to that of their generation. This is very common when students perform below expectations or when there is a massive failure in examinations.
The level of hard work, dedication and determination among students of the past generations was so glaring that it shows in their teaching abilities compared to the students of this generation.
In a report by an online medium, Professor Val Ekechukwu, the Dean of Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukkaand David Mba, the pro chancellor and Dean of Computing, Engineering and Media of De-Montfort University did a review as part of a comparative assessment of Nigerian universities to other emerging global economies (Brazil, Turkey and Thailand) and they found that the country’s universities lag well behind equivalent emerging global economies like South Africa, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey and Brazil.
They also lag behind traditional world leaders. They found out the answer to the question “what went wrong?” The problems from the university environment to the students.
The problems:
Decades of under-funding in universities has had a dramatic consequence. These include:
Nigeria’s university system isn’t big enough. The country’s population is now pushing towards 200 million, over 60% of which is under the age of 25 years. Demand for university places vastly exceeds current capacity. In 2017, 380,000 domestic university applicants didn’t get a university place.
Nigerian universities lack prestige. According to the 2019 Times Higher Education world university rankings, Nigeria has two universities in the world’s top thousand – Covenant University and the University of Ibadan. This compares to nine from South Africa – out of a total of 26 in total – and 11 from Egypt.
Universities under-perform on research. According to research Nigeria’s universities produce only 44% of the “scholarly output” of South Africa and 32% of Egypt. This is despite the fact that Nigeria has nearly four times more universities than Egypt and over six times more than South Africa.
The higher education sector loses local talent and fails to replace it. According to UNESCO data, over 60,000 of Nigeria’s brightest students – equivalent to 375 students for each of our 160 universities – choose to study abroad. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with this. The trouble in Nigeria’s case is that it fails to attract the equivalent in foreign students. It becomes a “brain drain” rather than the “brain exchange” it could be.
And yet, the education budget in Nigeria has seen little or no change over the last few years, and government funding of education remains low. In 2018, it was just over 7% of the national budget. This level of funding, as a percentage of the total budget, has remained stagnant since 2009 when it was 7.25%.
Professor Val Ekechukwu and David Mba also came up with possible solutions to these problems.
They mentioned that Offering joint faculties or schools between foreign and local institutions would be another way of bringing investment into Nigerian universities. The foreign investment model has led to significant improvements in the quality of education in other countries, for example in Malaysia but turning to the international market for investment would require significant policy and governance changes within the Nigerian University Commission.
Also, to improve university research activity, the proposed establishment of the National Research and Innovation Foundation as detailed in the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of 2011, is now urgently required. An established research and innovation foundation could have responsibility to fund research and development across all subject areas, and monitor its quality.
It is vital that the strategic vision of the foundation is aligned with the economic objectives of the country. This will ensure the development of strong research in subjects critical to the economy.
Although decades of neglect will not be remedied in a year, there are competing demands for government funds, such as in areas from transport infrastructure to health but there must be a strong political will to improve universities year on year, out and make education a long-term priority.
