Yaradua Highranked Private Universities!

PRESIDENT Umaru Yar’Adua’s speech at the maiden convocation of the Crescent Univer-sity in Abeokuta is very instructive. According to the President, Nigeria’s hope of producing world-class tertiary institutions rested on private universities.

PRESIDENT Yar’Adua at the event challenged private universities in the country to produce quality higher education that would redress the rot in the sector. He noted that privately owned universities possessed the capacity to raise the education sector to world standard.

PUBLIC universities across the country were shut down between June and this month. The Academic Staff Union of Universities said one of the reasons for the strike was poor funding by the government. While the strike was on, President Yar’Adua was in Saudi Arabia to attend the opening of a university there.

IT is now very clear why the Federal Government was not moved by the closure of the universities. The government is not expecting much contribution from them in its bid to make Nigeria one of the greatest 20 economies of the world by 2020.

SOME of the first generation universities in the country until, recently, ranked among the best in the world. With the establishment of private universities by former political office holders in the country, government is shifting emphasis from its own universities. Maybe, the President himself will soon establish his own university like his predecessor. So parents should expect more inaction and insensitivity from the government anytime ASUU decides to call out its members on strike again.

PUBLIC universities in Nigeria have done very well by contributing a lot to national development. It is time for the private ones to take over from them owing to neglect by the government.
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