The Academic Staff Union of Universities called off their strike over pay and conditions ,
a few days to February 16 , 2019 general elections . The strike commenced on November
4 , 2018 and had threatened to run through the elections , creating an own goal for the
All Progressives Congress and the re - election of President Muhammadu Buhari into a
second term in office .
The terms of the “ memorandum of
action ” , which ASUU and the
Federal Government agreed to , was
not exactly clear to the public. It
was thus not easy to say with
certainty whether it would turn out
to be another stop- gap measure
designed to buy off a dangerous
adversary at a sensitive time in the
middle of elections , or whether , at
last , a lasting solution had been
found to this intractable problem of
strikes and disruptions in Nigeria ’ s
university education system . The
main victims of the strike ; the
hapless students , will now have to
put up with a forced elongation of their duration in school as is the case when such
strikes happen .
In Nigeria , it is commonplace for a student on a four year degree programme to find
himself still enrolled on the same course , two or three additional years later than
scheduled , due to enforced disruptions of the kind just witnessed . The problem we are
talking about affects only public ( taxpayer- funded ) institutions, of course . Private
institutions are not affected since ASUU has no licence to operate in them. This column ’ s
best guess is that incessant ASUU strikes in public universities is a major disincentive to
enrolling in them and an incentive to opt for private universities instead , where one ’ s
commencement and graduation days are almost set in stone .
There is no denying the fact that public universities in this country used to rank
alongside any standard university anywhere in the world . There was massive
investment in them, coupled with the dedication and commitment of the academics
working in the institutions . The condition of service and studying used to be so
congenial that once recruited , an academic would chart a career path for himself until
retirement without thinking too much about taking on other odd jobs to supplement his
income . We are talking of the giddy heights of public investments in education in the
1960 s , 1970 s , and early 1980 s . During this period , you could walk into any of the first
generation campuses and see the array of academics and researchers from across the
world , milling around and pursuing their varied interests in science, medicine , social
science and humanities . Such were the glorious days .
Nowadays , the same institutions are now shells of their former selves . No one takes
pride in them anymore , not least, the political class, some of whom have gone on to
build rival private universities to deplete interest and erode confidence in the public
ones even further . Those who can afford it amongst them send their children to schools
in Western countries, namely ; UK , USA , Canada , Australia , etc . Others opt for private
universities in the country. As a result , public universities in Nigeria have become
production factories for half - baked graduates and illiterates unable to justify the
qualifications bestowed on them.
You would be forgiven for thinking that it is a little bit unpatriotic to be saying these
things out loud this way. It is washing one ’ s dirty linen in public as it were, except to
point out that this is an open secret . Education establishments around the world , who
once had huge respect for certificates from Nigeria ’ s universities now look down on
them. We would even argue that not airing this problem in a public forum like this is
both unpatriotic and a dereliction of duty . On that note , we do not need to scratch our
heads too much to understand the puzzle in the title of this piece . In its robust defence
of the strike action , ASUU went on social media and other outlets to alert people to the
plight of university employees and institutions in this country. It set out a litany of
calamities that have befallen the public institutions in this country over many years , due
to official neglect. A little excerpts from their dossier underline, indeed , affirm the choice
of title for this week ’ s column .
According to ASUU’ s detailed research into the state of public universities in this
country, justifying why ASUU went on strike : “ Internet services are non - existent , or
epileptic and slow in 99 per cent of Nigerian universities ” , “ Nigerian universities library
resources are outdated and manually operated . Book shelves are homes to rats /
cockroaches ” , “ 76 per cent of Nigerian universities use well as source of water , 45 per
cent use pit latrine, 67 per cent of students use bush as toilet” , “ 77 per cent of Nigerian
universities can be classified as glorified primary schools . Laboratories are non-
existent ” , “ 80 per cent of Nigerian universities are grossly under - staffed ” , “ 78 per cent
of Nigerian universities rely heavily on part - time and visiting lecturers ” , “ 88 per cent of
Nigerian universities have under - qualified academics” , “ 90 per cent of Nigerian
universities are bottom - heavy , with junior lecturers forming large chunk of the
workforce ?”, “ only 21 per cent of Nigerian universities attract expatriate lecturers , over
80 per cent of Ghanaian universities attract same ” , “ 89 per cent of Nigerian universities
employ their own (local ethnic) staff ” , “ Nigerian university medical students train in the
most dangerous environment, some only see medical tools in books ” , “ 80 per cent of
published journals by Nigerian academics have no visibility in the international
knowledge community ” , “ laundries and common rooms in many universities have been
converted into rooms where students live in open prison style” , “ over 1000 students
being packed in lecture halls designed for less than 150 students ” .
The above highlights are by no means exhaustive , the tale of woes documented by ASUU
is much longer; it is stupefying in essence . If you add the nonchalant attitude of the
students to their study environment; fiddling attendance, falsifying records and
assignments , open and blatant plagiarism , paying for lecturer’ s notes ( and marks in
many cases ), indulgence in illicit affairs with lecturers in exchange for marks, one can
see how worthless the certificates handed to the students at the end of their endeavours
really is . Many graduates from the universities are embarrassing for their ignorance of
the most elementary stuff like : who is the current President of Nigeria ? Or , how many
states comprise the Nigerian federation ? Some have been known to confuse Tafawa
Balewa ( the first Prime Minister of Nigeria ) for a folk singer from the north . And
Awolowo ( the first Premier of the old Western Nigeria) for a traditional ruler from some
ancient village in the Western part of Nigeria . Yes, these are products of Nigerian
universities !
What is even more embarrassing is that these illiterate products of the universities go
on to find very good , high - paying government jobs on a fast track to senior management
positions . Many also find similarly high rewarding jobs in the private sector as well . In
no time , many even find themselves in political office , wielding power and influence.
One only has to pay a little attention to the utterances of some of the elected
representatives in State and National Assemblies to make one think and wonder in
bewilderment .
There is apparently no penalty for failure
in school under our system , as who you
know counts more in life than what you
actually know . The title of your college
degree matters more than its substance .
Your ability to drop names to gain access
is more important than your ability to
read and write . Under the circumstances ,
where is the incentive for hard work?
More importantly , where is the incentive
to acquire knowledge ? None , it seems . It
may be time to privatise all Nigerian
universities . What do you think?

At the base of the rot in our system is our free oil money mentality. As a science student results are negotiable and anyone who knows how Nigeria works knows that you barely apply what you study so why take studies serious?