These days, students are not interested in learning’ - Prof. Ejembi
By ROSE EJEMBI, Makurdi
Tuesday, December 23, 2008



Prof. Egri Ejembi is a lecturer in the College of Agricultural extension and Management Technology, University of Agriculture , Makurdi. In this interview with Daily Sun, the university don spoke on the role of Universities of Agriculture in national development, why their graduates shun farming and instead roam the streets in search of white collar jobs. Prof. Ejembi also blamed the government, parents and even students for the decline in the standard of education in the country in the last 20 years.

Role of Universities of Agriculture
The University of Agriculture , Makurdi is a specialized university that was established in 1988 by the Babangida administration. At that time, two Universities of Agriculture were established; one at Abeokuta popularly known as UNAB, and then this one in Makurdi which we call UAM.

The two universities were created to pioneer cutting edge research in Agricultural development. I hasten to add that some years later, a third one which was sited at Umudike in Abia State was added. These universities are charged with the responsibilities of researching in agriculture and making the result of agricultural research available to our teeming population of farmers; primarily though, the agricultural development project which each state has.

The University of Agriculture, has its own catchment area as the whole of the north. And so, the university has a very large mandate. Since inception, and this is the 20th year, experts in various departments of the university have been conducting research in agriculture and making the results of these researches available to the nation at large starting with the Benue State government. This university collaborates actively with the Benue State Agricultural Development Authority (BENARDA) in the areas of extension and outreaches.

In terms of training the students, the university has a Bachelor of Agricultural programme in which three colleges; College of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Management Technology, College of Animal Science and the College of Agronomy collaborate to educate students to graduate with the Bachelor of Agriculture degrees in the various degree options. And this programme is tailored towards educating students to be practical agriculturists in the areas of Crop Production, Fisheries and Agricultural Management and Marketing, Makurdi so that by the time the students graduate, they can even be job creators rather than primarily job seekers. That is one major area in which the university has been trying to contribute to the situation in which Nigeria as a country can be self reliant in food crop production and to also contribute to food security in the country.

Our graduates look for white collar jobs
In fact, it’s very painful that there is a teeming population of our graduates out there who move from office to office looking for non-existent white collar jobs. And like you asked, one would wonder why this situation has come upon us. There are many factors and I will mention some of them. One major factor of the Nigerian society is that our educational system is largely focused on theory. We really have not emphasized hands-on experienced education in this country. And in order to have a hands-on educational focus, a lot of resources are required starting from ensuring that we have adequate quantity and quality of teaching and support staff so that students can receive the kind of close attention that is required, if we are going to emphasise practical education.

We also need well-equipped library where students can get information for themselves when they do assignments and other types of researches. We also need resources that will ensure that we have adequate space for instruction and practical applications of what is taught in the classroom. It is also necessary that we have the resources that will ensure that we have the vehicle that will make it possible for students to be taken outside the four walls of the university on excursion and field trips so that they are exposed to what is happening out there in industries and on farms as the Nigerian farmer and entrepreneurs operate such business units.

It is also necessary that we have resources that will ensure we have adequate housing on campus and off-campus so that the students have a choice wherever they want to live on campus and off campus and even to assemble on time for their instruction to take place. We also need a society that provides the value system that encourages the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake and for industrial and productive applications. When you look out there in the larger society, the people that are at the helm of affairs, are they modeling the kind of behaviour that the students that we seek to educate can emulate or are they seeing behaviours that are basically self-serving and selfish? I think we need a new orientation.

Big farmers discourage young graduates.
May be my views are divergent on that issue. From what we find, a lot of our leaders have their own private farms. But the issue is those farms that they have, how have they established them. I dare say that a lot of them establish them with resources looted from the public that they are supposed to serve. And so, such farms in a lot of cases are not sustainable as soon as these leaders leave the office. But I know that a lot of them try top establish farms and they do establish them but they are not farms that our students can easily establish or even learn from because they are established on a very big and unrealistic scale.

Why young graduates find it difficult to establish agric enterprises
I think some of the factors that contribute to the non-establishment of agricultural enterprises by graduates of Universities of Agriculture and faculties of agriculture in conventional universities is because agric is a capital intensive enterprise and not many graduates can afford to have ready access to the funds that are needed to establish agric enterprises. Secondly, primary agricultural production requires land and assess to land is another difficult thing in Nigeria. So many young graduates find it difficult to acquire land to establish agric enterprises.

Another factor that discourages young graduates from establishing agric enterprises is lack of marketing information. Our governments over the years have been emphasizing production and many farmers have heeded that call but no sooner have they produced than they discovered they cannot market what they have produced. And you know, if a farmer is disappointed one year because he has produced and cannot sell to recoup his investment, he would not be encouraged to produce the next year. So, there is a dearth of agric marketing information in this country and that is an area that we have not really tried to address as a nation especially as successive governments have not helped matters.

In other countries, even developed countries, the agric sector has effective government protection such that if for instance, it wants to encourage rice production or poultry production, government will ensure that nobody imports rice or poultry products. The Obasanjo administration tried to address these two issues but I am not sure that these polices survived his administration. And so, there is a need for the government to address this issue of protecting agric sector from foreign invasion by way of exports.
National food security not realistic by year 2020
Going by what we have done so far, I believe that year 2020 is unrealistic. But having said that, I think it is important that the government is creating awareness that there is something we need to do if we are going to have national food security. And so, I look at year 2020 as a motivation to the target and if we are really serious, then the government needs to place its priorities right.

Quality of education in Nigeria
It is true that the quality of education has really deteriorated in the last 20 years. Some of the reasons include the fact that as Nigerians, we prefer quantity to quality. Most Nigerians now don’t care about things being done right. A lot of students these days are not interested in learning, they are interested in acquiring certificates; credentials but how they acquire them, they are not interested. These days, a lot of students do not like lecturers who come to class punctually and regularly. They prefer lecturers that will come to class to gist until the period is over.

The prefer lecturers that like to be settled when the student hasn’t done what he or she should do. And there is a whole atmosphere where people just don’t want to do what they should do either the lecturers or the students. It’s also surprising that some parents and guardians are also helping to water down the quality of education in the country. Many a parent or guardian has paid invigilators to look the other way while his or her child or ward and other students cheat when they take qualifying exams like WASSEC, NECO and JAMB.

Some parents and guardians even pay people to take these exams for their children or wards. And then what about government that pays lip service to the importance of education when it would not fund educational institutions properly? And that is one of the fights ASUU has been having with successive governments over the years that the government should try to achieve the UNICEF standard of educational funding.

We discovered that Obasanjo administration was not even funding education to the tune of 10 per cent. At least, the Yar’ Adua’s administration found that out when it came into office. These are some of the factors. As I said earlier, our leaders give the impression that it doesn’t matter what we do, what matters is what we have acquired. So, young people are not interested in learning, they are more interested in acquisition and however you acquire it doesn’t matter.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/education/2008/dec/23/education-23-12-2008-001.htm

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