Nigeria has 78 public and 51 private universities. A strike
by lecturers has paralysed public institutions for the past
three months, while teaching at private universities has
continued. As a result, there has been a rush by parents
with financial muscle to register their children in private
universities, whose proprietors are laughing all the way to
the bank.
Other factors have contributed to the financial fortunes of
private tertiary institutions. They include weakening of the
local currency, the Naira, against the American dollar,
increasing the costs of studying abroad; visa restrictions on
Nigerian students by Western countries; and instability in the
Middle East, preventing students from studying there in
Islamic universities.
However, students in the applied sciences – especially
medicine, dentistry and engineering – have to wait for public
universities to reopen, because these capital-intensive courses
are not offered in private institutions.
The private sector
While public universities have remained closed at the start of
the academic year, private institutions have opened their doors
and have reported many more students – including refugees
from the public sector.
Parents have gone to the office of the Joint Admissions
Matriculation Board in the federal capital Abuja, to change
the admission status of their children from public to private
universities.
“The current industrial strike in public universities has thrown
up a major contradiction in Nigeria’s political landscape,”
said a leader of the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
who did not want to be named so as not to jeopardise ongoing
pay negotiations.
Most of the children of the Nigerian elite were in private
universities. “Thus they are not bothered if public universities
are shut down. It is clear that the proprietors of these private
universities made up their mind not to allow academic staff to
join unions. What a pity!”
According to reliable sources, the income of parents
determines the choice of private university, as does location
and religious affiliation. Some of the universities are
fashioned after well-known tertiary institutions in Western
Europe and the Middle East.
They are well oiled by private funds, well equipped and their
Nigerian and foreign staff are well salaried thanks to hefty
fees paid by parents who are members of the well-
remunerated political class. The students are primarily
children of top military officers, top civil servants, traditional
rulers, private sector executives and some lecturers from
public universities.
Among these private institutions – to name but a few – are the
American University of Nigeria, founded by former vice-
president, Abubakar Atiku; Bells University of Technology,
Ota in Ogun State, funded by former president Olusegun
Obasanjo; Baze University in Abuja, founded by Senator
Datti Baba-Ahmed; Veritas University, Abuja, founded by the
Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria; Covenant University,
founded by the Living Faith Church; and the Nigerian Turkish
Nile University, which is owned by Turkish and Nigerian
private investors.
Private universities market themselves as assisting students to
create networks of international friends who will be useful to
them in future jobs in a globalised world.
Push factors no more
Most members of the establishment in northern Nigeria are no
longer willing to send their children to study in Western
Europe, because of visa restrictions that have followed the
suspected involvement of some Nigerian students abroad in
terrorism.
Images of violence and destruction in the Middle East –
especially in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Sudan – have also
persuaded Islamic parents to send their children to private
Muslim universities in Nigeria.
Universities in the Middle East were once the preferred
destinations for Nigerian students studying Arabic and Islam.
This is no more the case.
Nigerian embassies in the Middle East have advised
prospective students to stay at home or go to Malaysia to
study. “The political situation in the Middle East is volatile.
We cannot guarantee the safety of our students,” declared a
senior diplomat in the foreign affairs ministry in Abuja, who
did not want to be named.
Ibrahim Mikael, a Muslim cleric in Lagos, said, “Authorities
of the Islamic-based universities [in Nigeria] have approached
Muslim clerics to make use of the Friday prayers, appealing to
parents to send their kids to these universities.”
Some challenges
Most have recorded soaring enrolments of new students. But
they do have challenges.
For example, the American University of Nigeria is in a
region that experiences occasional attacks by Boko Haram,
the Muslim fundamentalist group fighting for the imposition
of sharia law in northern Nigeria.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, with approval from
parliament, has imposed a state of emergency in the areas
where the university is situated – an action criticised by AUN
Vice-chancellor Margie Ensign, who has said Yola is calm
and peaceful.
Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako, however, pointed
out recently that the security situation had precipitated the
“massive” departure of foreigners from Yola – an obvious
reference to foreign students and staff of AUN.
Ensign debunked this claim, saying Nyako’s comments were
“completely inaccurate. Not only are we running our regular
summer school with very high attendance, but no faculty
member or staff has left AUN because of the ‘state of
emergency’.
“In fact, over 4,000 people – including the ambassadors of the
United States, the European Union, Rwanda and Ireland –
attended our fifth commencement ceremony on 11 May, three
days before the state of emergency was announced. We are
also continuing our important development work in the
community in literacy, IT and with the Adamawa
Peacemakers Initiative that the University founded in January
2012.”
What about public university students?
While many of rich parents are willing to send their children
to private universities, students who had been admitted to
study medicine, dentistry and pharmacy have mostly decided
to wait until public universities open.
Private universities do not currently have the infrastructure or
manpower to offer these courses.
“I have been given admission to a public university,” said
Agnes Okon, who has been admitted to read medicine. “I will
wait until the strike is over. Government should make more
concessions so that university teachers can go back to the
campuses. I am tired of staying at home.”

Ok space reserved am coming