AUTONOMY AS AN ANTIDOTE TO THE BANE OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA Education is the bedrock to a successful life and should be provided to people who wish to acquire it. According to UNICEF, 30% of a nation’s budget should be apportioned to education for eradication of illiteracy in the country. There are three major stages of education namely primary, secondary and tertiary education. The primary is the elementary stage where arithmetic and other basic knowledge are inculcated into the pupils and it is also refers to the foundation of education which should be controlled by Government at all levels in terms of funding, monitoring, supervision, policy formulation and policy implementation so as to make the aims and objectives achievable. Secondary education is the second stage of education where pupils who have completed primary education are enrolled to, it is a place designed for exposing students to both curricular and extra-curricular activities which prepare students ahead of the task in tertiary education and should also be controlled by the Government. Tertiary education is the education given after the completion of secondary education in universities, colleges of education, polytechnics and monotechnics. University education is aimed at refining students in order to be refined people which enables them to excel in their chosen career. The aims and objectives of University education as contained in the National Policy of Education section 8 sub-section 59 (2004, edition) they are as follows; (a) Contribute to national development through high level relevant manpower training (b) Develop and inculcate proper values for the survival of the individual and society (c) Develop the intellectual capability of individuals to understand and appreciate their local and external environments (d) Acquire both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to be self reliant and useful members of the society (e) Promote and encourage scholarship and community service (f) Forge and cement national unity and (g) Promote national and international understanding and interaction. The above mentioned objectives of university education cannot be said to be achieved due to spate of problems militating against the advancement of university education in Nigeria. The administration of university education in Nigeria is appalling which has resulted to dismal performance of Nigerian universities as conducted by webometrics ranking in Africa and World in general. It is pertinent to x-ray the problems of university education with a view to find an antidote to it so as to promote academic excellence as well as enable Nigeria to achieve vision 20:2020, the problems are lack of fund, inconsistent policies, poor facilities, lack of personnel, politicisation of university system, research problem, lack of planning, non conducive environment, maladministration, corruption, non provision for staff capacity building, high enrolment ratio and brain drain. Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and yet its universities cannot compete favourably with universities in countries with small population like Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea just to mention a few and unconfirmed report has it that Nigerians spends 4billion naira annually on university education in Ghana. Concerted efforts have been made by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for the granting of autonomy to universities in Nigeria by the federal government so as to accelerate the development of university education but to no avail. The agreement reached between ASUU and federal Government in year 2009 has not been fulfilled on the part of the Government. Can government give reason for reneging on his promise, am very sure that the answer will be no. It is no news that all the lecturers in the public universities have down tools to press home their demand. According to Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyah Rufai, submitted that the Federal Government had made offer to the striking lecturers but they are still waiting for ASUU’s response. The NUC executive secretary, Professor Julius Okogie, corroborated the minister’s claim that he expected the ASUU to reply the government based on the offer made rather than embarking on strike. If truly, the government made offer to ASUU, then ASUU should quickly respond to the offer. Though, I wasn’t aware of the demand of the ASUU, neither I was availed of the offer made on the part of Government, until 12 of July, 2013 when I got to known the content of the agreement reached by both parties which was published in the Nation newspaper Titled “Why ASUU is on strike” which emanated from ASUU’s National President, DR. Nasiru .F. Issa. For those that are handicap of the prayers of ASUU, I will like to highlight the demands of ASUU which has been the logjam with the government, they includes: A new salary structure for academics which should contain a set of Earned allowances, Non-salary conditions of service, Pension for University Academic staff and compulsory retirement age of 70 years for those in the professorial cadre, Formation of the Nigerian University Pension Fund Administrator and the modalities for the operation of the National Health Insurance Scheme in the Universities, Funding that would inject a total of #1.518,331,545,304.00 for the period 2009-2011, Possible sources of funding and the need for a minimum of 26% of the annual budget of State and Federal Governments to be allocated to education of which 50% shall be allocated to Universities and the need to place education on the “First Charge” by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Government’s assistance to states for higher education; The restructuring of the governance and leadership structure in the Universities; The need to amend the National Universities Commission Act 2004; The education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institution) Act 2004 and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Act 2004; The agreement also highlighted the priority areas of Implementation as well as the machinery for monitoring the implementation of the agreement with the with agreement’s effective date and the date for review. The ASUU claimed that if these prayers were answered, the universities problem will be a thing of the past. The government and ASUU should as a matter of urgency return to negotiation table to resolve the imbroglio for the sake of innocent students. According to Oxford Dictionary, autonomy can be simply defined as the ability to act and make decisions without being controlled by anyone else. In education parlance it refers to taking decisions in education without any interference by the government. Why relating it to university system, it encompasses the ability of the university to evolve policy, take decisions and perform other functions as it affect the university without the input of the government. In making universities autonomous in Nigeria, the autonomy needs to revolve round all aspect of university administration most especially in terms of funding, appointment of vice-chancellor and other principal officers of the university. The constitution of governing council for the universities by the government should be abolished because events has shown that most of the so call chairmen of the governing bodies play politics with the administration of university and which is antithetical to the development of university education system. Most of them are politicians and they usually influence decisions of the university management and the running of the management should be devoid of ethnic, religion and political colourations. In term of funding, government should jerk up the monthly subvention given to universities to assist them to cater for all their needs. The intervention of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund) in the development of university education is a good idea, but the agency should endeavour to increase their efforts in erection of structures as well as area of staff capacity building for both academic and non academic staff of the university. Special fund should be provided for research purpose since research is one of the yardsticks for the ranking of the universities. In respect to the appointment of principal officers of the universities, most especially, Vice-chancellor, the government should hands off. The appointment of the principals should be an affair of the academicians in the university without the input of the Government; meritocracy should not be sacrificed for mediocrity and the appointment should be in tandem with the acts of university. For universities to enjoy this autonomy there is need for speedy amendment of the acts that set up the university. In conclusion, the public universities should be given utmost attention by government so as to serve as models for universities in other countries. The development of universities will have positive impact, while the reverse will have negative implications. Yusuf Suleiman writes from Ilorin.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 14:12:15 +0000
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