Prof Yakubu Ochefu is the Secretary-General of the Committee of Vice Chancellors in Nigeria. In this interview with Funmi Ogundare, the professor of Economic History and Development Studies explained why Nigeria must take its education seriously and provide an operating environment for people to work and earn a decent living. Excerpts:


How would you describe the current state of education in Nigeria, and how can the country drive the necessary changes?

The current state of education in Nigeria, in general, and university education in particular, is very bad. We have had this sad situation of under-investment in our educational institutions for nearly 40 years now based on the development index of ​ countries that are at par with us as far as development is concerned. We have not made the right investments in the training of the teachers. We have not made the right investment in the curriculum of our ​ educational institutions with the economy and society. We have not made the right quantum of equipment in terms of infrastructure, especially teaching and learning infrastructure. We have not gotten it right in terms of the changing dynamics in the philosophy of education, which is very important in the sense that depending on your development agenda and where you are in the context of your development status, your philosophy of education must be aligned to that. And then finally, we have not made the right investment or not taken ​ the right decisions in terms of the governance structure of our educational institutions. So when you put all of that together, we have a bit of education that is extremely challenged. It behoves all the stakeholders in the education ecosystem to come together to think through. This has been going on for a while, but ultimately, the political will to track some of the difficult decisions that need to be made for us to break through these challenges, ​ are not forthcoming and that is why in the last 30 years, we are not solving the problems. For Nigeria to drive the necessary change, we need to make the right investment in education. ​ At this stage of our national development, our education budget should be at least 15 per cent of GDP ​ across all levels.​
Prof Yakubu Ochefu is the Secretary-General of the Committee of Vice Chancellors in Nigeria. In this interview with Funmi Ogundare, the professor of Economic History and Development Studies explained why Nigeria must take its education seriously and provide an operating environment for people to work and earn a decent living. Excerpts:


How would you describe the current state of education in Nigeria, and how can the country drive the necessary changes?

The current state of education in Nigeria, in general, and university education in particular, is very bad. We have had this sad situation of under-investment in our educational institutions for nearly 40 years now based on the development index of ​ countries that are at par with us as far as development is concerned. We have not made the right investments in the training of the teachers. We have not made the right investment in the curriculum of our ​ educational institutions with the economy and society. We have not made the right quantum of equipment in terms of infrastructure, especially teaching and learning infrastructure. We have not gotten it right in terms of the changing dynamics in the philosophy of education, which is very important in the sense that depending on your development agenda and where you are in the context of your development status, your philosophy of education must be aligned to that. And then finally, we have not made the right investment or not taken ​ the right decisions in terms of the governance structure of our educational institutions. So when you put all of that together, we have a bit of education that is extremely challenged. It behoves all the stakeholders in the education ecosystem to come together to think through. This has been going on for a while, but ultimately, the political will to track some of the difficult decisions that need to be made for us to break through these challenges, ​ are not forthcoming and that is why in the last 30 years, we are not solving the problems. For Nigeria to drive the necessary change, we need to make the right investment in education. ​ At this stage of our national development;

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