On the 10th of July, 2013, the students of the
University of Lagos received a message from the SMS
mobile service -“LAG MOBILE” that read thus:
“UNILAG students have not and aren’t planning to
stage or join any protest. Joining any protest is your
risk. UNILAG, (1st choice and nation’s pride) – Council
of Faculty Presidents…10 July 2013”.
Please tell me this nonsense is not coming from my
student “leaders”. Are these persons speaking for
Akokites or for themselves? Who should actually
instigate a protest against the poor state of
education if not the student leaders of the institution
that prides itself as the University of First Choice and
nation’s pride? Where should the protest start from if
not from the university that has produced activists
like Tunde Bakare, kayode Fayemi and Ayodele
Awojobi?
For those that are not aware of student leadership in
the University of Lagos, here is a brief description of
what operates over here. The student union
government was proscribed in the year 2005
following series of rioting led by the student union
government in the university under the vice
chancellorship of professor Oye-Ibidapo Obe.
Since then, the students neither have a uniform body
that speak on their behalf nor represent them on the
student union level. Though, the “SUG” government
is not in place, there are student representatives
across faculties and departments in the school. In a
bid to fill this vacuum, the presidents of the various
faculties came together under a platform called
“Council of faculty presidents”.
Though, not a registered body with the Dean of
Student Affairs, the council of faculty presidents has
been instrumental to solving student problems on
campus. A good example was the food protests that
brought about uniformity in the prices of items on
campus.
But being a student leader goes beyond having an
office or having meetings with the DSA or vice
chancellor, a student leader should in actual fact be a
genuine representative of its subjects and not a
stooge to neither a group nor the school authority or
even, the government. A reliable source disclosed
that the presidents met with the school authority and
one of the conclusions raised was that as long as the
students agree not to participate in any form of
protest in solidarity with ASUU, the hall of residence
will be open throughout the strike prompting the
SMS that was credited to them.
If this is true, then it had actually reinforced my
position that the future of Nigeria is not only bleak
but gloomy. Does it mean that the presidents of the
faculties of the University of Lagos are not privy of
the issues that instigated the strike action by ASUU?
If students do not stage protests against the abysmal
state of the nation’s educational system, then what
should they protest against?
It is as if this council does not know what’s at stake
at this stage of our national life. The issues that were
tendered by ASUU are numerous and few of them are
the same time not within the purview of the students
but at the same time, there are quite a number of
them that are of more benefit to the students than
the agitators (lecturers) themselves.
The students of the University of Ibadan under the
leadership of the student union organized a protest
on 11th of July in solidarity with ASUU demanding
the resignation of the minister of education-
professor Ruqayat Rufai. This is not the only time the
students of the University of Ibadan had stood for
justice and on the side of common good in the
history of Nigeria as a similar scenario played out
during the subsidy protests.
A similar action was taken when they came en masse
to show some support to the students of the
University of Lagos when President Jonathan
proposed that the name of the school be changed
from UNILAG to MAU. My question to the student
leaders is this- what is your position in all of this or
would you continue to keep mum on this issue of
national importance?
If our student leaders in the various tertiary
institutions and the leadership of the National
association of Nigerian students (NANS) in general
are actually concerned about the welfare of students
a fraction of how they rush to trade awards for
money, they would by now have state unequivocally
their position to the government through press
releases, conferences, street demonstrations and
even occupy the ministry of education; but alas, like
Nigerian Politrickcians, it is only money that unite
them not the welfare of whom they claim to
represent.
Mr. Issa-Fagee while addressing a press conference,
urged all stake holders to come to the rescue of the
country’s educational and financial sectors from the
hands of wicked governments (state and federal) as
the economy of the country is “glaringly under the
jugular clutches of Western economists, experts and
interests who promote exogenous (external) instead
of endogenous (internal) model of development”
hence, “counting on the renewed support of the
media in challenging agents of underdevelopment
who deny less-privileged Nigerians quality higher
education, health, employment and other life-
transforming elements of development”.
He goes further to equally invite “labor activists,
students, traders, professional groups, civil society
organizations and other progressive segments of the
public to join our determined efforts to save Nigeria
from her captors”.
Here is a brief summary of ASUU’s demand that
actually concerns the students in the universities
according to the July 1 2013 strike bulletin number
1:
An agreement was signed in 2009 which the federal
government agreed to increase progressively, the
annual budgetary allocation to education to 26%
between 2009 and 2020; render assistance to state
universities; set up research and development units
by companies operating in Nigeria, teaching and
research equipment provision to the laboratories and
classrooms .
FUNDING OF THE SECTOR
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommends at that
least 26% of the annual budget is to be expended on
education by any developing country like ours which
had been implemented by quite a handful of other
African countries like Ghana who has never gone
below the recommendation since 2003 with an
average allocation ranging between 26% and 35% of
its annual budget to education. Kenya on her part
dedicates at least 24% while South Africa budgets an
average of 26% to the education sector.
A breakdown of Nigeria’s (the giant of Africa)
allocation clearly legitimizes ASUU’s resolve to get
the government to pay more attention to the sector-
The 2013 budget allocated N426.53bn to the
education sector from a total of N4.92trn
representing 8.7%; In 2012, out of a total budget of
N4.7trn, less than 9% (N400.15bn) was spent on
education of which N55.06bn was allocated to capital
expenditure, N345.09bn on recurrent to include
N317.896bn for personnel cost and N27.192bn for
overheads with the main ministry proposal of
N5.491bn, MDGs- N2.173bn, parastatals- N5.196bn;
universities- N14.411bn, colleges of education-
N4.555bn and unity colleges- N7.663bn.
Speaking at a lecture organized by the Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities of the Federal
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, on Leadership
and the Challenges of Higher Education in Nigeria,
Senator Babafemi Ojudu quoted a Nigerian professor
to have said that “Nigerian leaders for whatever
reason have consistently underfunded the
educational sector even at the level of budget
proclamations which, as everybody knows, does not
tell the full story about actual expenditure. Is it any
wonder then that Ghana’s better funded educational
sector has become a haven for Nigerian students
seeking a modicum of quality and order?”
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT UNITS
Universities all over the world take pride not only in
teaching but also in research. Serious countries fund
their ivory towers to conduct research in order to
export their findings and discoveries to the industries
and the external world. This culture of research fund
has not only been imbibed by government and
individuals (through donations) across the world but
have over the years produced desired results in the
field of science, engineering, psychology and even
operation research. In the United States for instance,
there are lecturers whose job is strictly for
conducting research leaving the teaching of students
in the hands of the academic ones.
The reverse is the case in Nigeria as not only do we
have to contend with inadequacy in the number of
staff (teaching and non-teaching), the few we have
are not properly motivated. It is so sad that in the
21st century, some lecturers do not have offices and
some even share with their colleagues in our
universities. Is it a surprise that we import
everything even toothpick?
According to Ojudu, In 1995, at the time Nigeria
could boast of only 711 scientific publications, South
Africa had 3, 413, Brazil had 5, 440, while India had
14, 883.
The setting up of the research and development
units would not only be instrumental to the scientific
progress of the nation but will also attract significant
attention by “brains” from universities of other
countries; the unit, if in place will enhance research
activities on campus and also promote effective
collaboration of Nigeria scholars with industries
across the world.
PROVISION TO THE LABORATORIES AND
CLASSROOMS
Our laboratories are no lab at all! Ours are only
abodes for rats and other rodents as they are not
adequately equipped and maintained; the
laboratories in our citadels are best described as
glorified yam barns having cobwebs as designs. Our
physics lab only houses rulers and rusted beam
balances; the chemistry labs in our prestigious
towers are home to dry taps and expired chemicals
that were probably bought during the free education
program of the late sage- Chief Obafemi Awolowo in
1955.
The classes in Nigerian universities are more or less a
mechanic or carpentry workshop where there are
more damaged furniture than good ones, our classes
are neither conducive for teaching nor learning, with
little or no illumination.
As a student of Mathematics, I had cause to meet
with one of my lecturers on a problem on
construction and he said they do not have any
material on it. This left me worried as i wondered why
as a department, there would not be a mathematics
laboratory where students could actually see the
practicality of mathematics especially geometry
where they would be able to construct mathematical
shapes, determine their features and areas for
themselves.
What ASUU is agitating for is that they are tired of
producing unemployable scientists and graduates in
general- their agitation is not only for themselves but
for the students also as many graduates of physics
today could neither differentiate a potentiometer
from a galvanometer nor a shunt from a multiplier;
we have graduates of Microbiology today who find it
extremely difficult to teach junior secondary school
Basic science at the same time, there are thousands
of Mathematics graduate certificate holders who are
not conversant with the construction and bisection of
a line segment. All ASUU is saying is that the
laboratories must be given special attention.
RENDERING OF ASSISTANCE TO STATE UNIVERSITIES
Can you please educate me on what successive
federal governments have done for the past 14 years
in Aso rock? One does not need to be a close relation
of the vice chancellors and registrar in universities
especially the federal ones to get a glimpse of the
pressures they face by all and sundry because of
admissions into federal schools. It is not as if the
lecturers in federal universities are more of a genius
than their counterparts in the state universities but
because every Nigerian especially the indigent ones
prefer to study in a federal school because of the low
fees paid in the federal institutions.
In the Lagos state university for instance, a students
pay between N180 000 to N300 000 as fees whereas
the University of Lagos charges less than N45 000 for
freshers and an average of N9000 for staylites.
Though the state governments are also culpable in
the decline in the standard and quality of education
in the country, the federal government must come to
the aid of state owned universities in other to ease
the pressure on the federal universities and also
make education available to all.
Modiu Olaguro studies Education and Mathematics at
the University of Lagos; he wrote in through The
Press Club, UNILAG .