ASUU LARGESSE: FG MISSED THE POINT by BAKARI YUSUF This may sound shocking or even offensive to some or most people, but sincerely I strongly believe that the N400 billion announced by the Federal Government as part of the effort to end the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is another wasteful venture as, in my opinion, such money can be better utilized elsewhere. I say this for the following reasons. First, the ugly trend in the nation’s educational sector needs a holistic approach at all levels. Experience has taught us that the most practical way to solve a problem is by tackling it from the root and not by cutting-off or mending some branches. Let’s face it, the public universities are just a segment of the entire Nigerian educational system. We have state universities, state polytechnics, colleges and private universities whose owners deserve national awards for their efforts and sacrifice. In essence, are we saying let’s fix the public universities with the funds and leave the rest who are also in dire need of attention to suffer? My answer is a capital “NO”. Government’s responsibility is to all Nigerians and not to public universities alone. Secondly, the problem of the Nigerian tertiary education goes beyond public universities, as statistics has shown that, of the three million students who pass the prescribed exams, only about 600,000 are admitted, hence there is fierce competition for the available spaces. Though the private universities are trying to bridge this gap, they are still grossly inadequate. It therefore makes sense to say that the problem lies in the number of universities in general and not public universities alone. So in essence, rather than continue with the same number, what the government ought to do with the N400 billion is to use the money as an intervention grant to facilitate the setting up of more universities in the country. Instead of spending all the money on the existing public universities and end up with the same number of institutions which will not solve the problem of the nation’s educational system or even provide available spaces to accommodate all qualified students, it is better to use it in creating more institutions. Third, is the issue of management of resource: let’s be sincere, we are where we are today as the result of some bad choices our leaders, administrators of public universities inclusive, have made. It has been alleged that some universities have more vehicles than some state governments, and the bulk of their allocated funds go into servicing the comfort and luxury of the administrators. My sincere take is, giving funds to this same set of people is like putting it into some pockets, and we will go back to square one again. In conclusion, I believe that a holistic approach to the nation’s edu-cational system should be adopted and the government should not spend such monies on public universities alone. If the N400 billion is released for the universities, then teachers in secondary schools, polytechnics, colleges of education and other institutions will start making their own demands; and, who knows, even nomadic trainers may also threaten to down tools.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:24:30 +0000
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