₦airaland Forum

https://thenewkokoro.com/2020/09/22/524/

BY C. C. NNAJI

Let me begin with an appeal.
University lecturers are our children, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, molders, partners in progress and many more.
Appeal to parents, students and all stakeholder.
The time is ripe to do the right!

The argument revolving around the survival of the educational sector in general and Nigerian universities in particular has been raging for decades. But never have we come so close, face to face, with an imminent collapse unless drastic measures are taken. In this article, I will be as analytical, objective and as factual as possible so that those who pretend to be deaf might hear. By this exposé, I intend to rouse all and sundry to rally round the Nigerian Lecturer and put up a last minute struggle in order to forestall the looming tragedy.




*The First Shock*




The Nigerian Lecturer is the most abused, misused, exploited, misunderstood and manipulated civil servant in the country. When he assumes duty, he is sent into the fray empty-handed. He is not given any kick-off allowance and to begin with, he has to save up money for months to buy the laptop which he will use to discharge his duties. I am sure you know that a good laptop costs between #200,000 and #500,000, or even more. Now a Graduate Assistant who earns less than #120,000 will save for nearly six months to buy a laptop, given that he also has to pay rent, eat, clothe himself, and pay transport fare to and from work.

Even a senior lecturer cannot comfortably buy a laptop, his basic work implement, without undertaking a rigorous saving scheme. I am typing this treatise from a London-used laptop which still cost me a fortune – a laptop probably used by a white kid to play video games in their backyard, and only had to get rid of because his taxi-driver dad has upgraded him to a super speed version.




*Did you know that lecturers are the only group of workers I know who are expected to provide/source for their own wok implements?*




Now lecturers in some universities buy markers for teaching students. Then, they are also expected to conduct research from their salaries, sponsor themselves to conferences and workshops as well as publish in top notch journals. To publish in a top notch journal, you need to have access to state-of-the-art laboratory and conducive working environment with high speed internet access. No Nigerian university qualifies in this regard. But I still find it a feat that these impoverished, neglected and ill-equipped lecturers still manage to rear their “stubborn” black heads in the global intellectual playing field. They even go as far as making it to the editorial board membership of top journals in the field colonized by unrepentant and hard-to-please white supremacists. Lecturers are expected to spend their salaries to write tons of research proposals (which hardly materialize) in order to attract funds to buy equipment for teaching and research.

Then there is also the issue of internet access and affiliated costs. Many Nigerian universities do not provide internet access to their staff. Even when they pretend to, it is only a low speed sporadic network concocted to give a semblance of conformity. Imagine a professor with his laptop in his hand, chasing internet signal from one tree shade to another. How can he ever be efficient? Sadly, the Nigerian Lecturer is supposed to pay for the service (un)rendered. Many who cannot “chase” the signal retire to their offices and fall back on epileptic data bundle sold by capitalist service providers.

Personally, I spend nearly #90,000 annually on data bundle to perform my statutory assignment. I can hear you shout _propaganda_ ! Now let me take you through. I use the MTN weekly 6GB data subscription that costs #1,500 and sometimes I exhaust it in about four days. Assuming I renew my subscription five times a month, that would amount to #7,500 per month… Now your jaw drops as you realize how serious and factual the matter is! I am sure some people spend more.




*Did you know that it could take years to get published in impact factor rated journals* , yet these “ne’er-do-wells” (in the minds of the uninformed) called Nigerian lecturers still publish thousand of papers in these journals? I have once had to wait for




two solid and uncertain years to have one of my papers published. The situation is further worsened by some publishers who insist on compulsory open access publication which imposes on the prospective author a huge financial burden. A typical example is world class Swiss-based publisher known as MDPI  that charges up to 2000CHF article processing charge per accepted paper. This amount translates to about #1,030,000 per paper! Are you kidding me? Please visit https://www.mdpi.com/apc to verify this claim. This is besides whatever was spent to conduct and report the research, and the Nigerian Lecturer has no choice but to cough out the money “from his intestine” if he has to, or go borrowing!

Yes, I hear you loudly grumbling about the amount of money budget by TETFUND for research. A detailed survey will reveal that the political exertion needed to access the paltry sum awarded in the name of TETFUND grant in many universities is not worth it. A number of countries including China and South Africa fund their lecturers to conduct research and thereafter pay them for publishing the paper in a good journal. In fact, an average researcher in South Africa could earn as much money, if not more, from publications alone as a professor in a Nigerian university would earn as annual salary. Who did this to us?  Please conduct your independent survey. It is unfortunate that Nigeria and Nigerians (including students) want the Nigerian Lecturer to turn into a street beggar before they understand his plight.

Maybe we need to stop using our salaries to buy marker. We can return to the era of the blackboard, and on our way to work we would stop by the “ _akara_ ” woman’s shop and pick up some pieces of charcoal for our lectures! Did you know that the monthly take-home of a Nigerian senator can pay over thirty Nigerian professors? And this is besides constituency allowance and all the other funnels of income (legal and illegal, but mostly illegal) that senators have created from themselves by exploiting the constitution. I do not know of any senator who uses his salary to do his job.




*Luxury is fast becoming a mirage*




What if the Graduate Assistant wants to buy a car? I do not consider a car as a luxury. By the way, no Nigerian lecturer I know or have heard of can buy a brand new car. That’s an illusion that only comes true in the most delightful of dreams.  A fairly used (tokumbo) car costs between #1,500,000 and #2,500,000. Now a Senior Lecturer who earns just about #200,000 will have to save up his entire salary for about ten months to buy a car rejected by a street sweeper in New York.  And for him to do that, he has very limited options ranging from taking a loan, extorting money from students, or taking up an extra job. What about a house? It can take a lecturer an average of fifteen years to build a modest house, and this comes with enormous degree of discipline and self-denial.

The Nigerian Lecturer cannot even afford the flight ticket to one of the smallest African countries for a vacation or short course let alone Europe or America. Yet, he is supposed to collaborate with international partners and be abreast of recent developments in his field. No wonder politicians can now easily buy over a professor at a paltry sum to falsify election results!

*Way Forward*

I know opinions might be vastly divergent on this but I will humbly proffer a simple solution. Firstly there should be a drastic review of the salary of the Nigerian Lecturer. The salary should be readjusted to an African average, at the very least. Did you know that as at 2017, an equivalent of a Graduate Assistant in a Ghanaian polytechnic was earning an equivalent of #350,000, while a professor in Tanzania was earning over #1,000,000 as at 2016? Both of these cases represent three times the salary of their counterparts in Niger-area. Secondly, all recurrent expenses like research/publication, conferences/workshops, internet access, etc. incurred should be dis-aggregated from salary and paid as allowance monthly. Thirdly and lastly, politicians should steer clear of our universities if sanity and sanctity must be restored.

Below is a conservative expenditure of a Senior Lecture on #200,000 per month

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annual Income                 2,400,000                                                             Expenses

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rent @ 20,000 per month                                                                            240000

Feeding & water @ #100,000 per month                                               1200000

Transport fare                                                                                                   240000

Data bundle                                                                                                       120000

Electricity                                                                                                             120000

School Fees (assuming 4 kids)                                                                    360000

Conferences                                                                                                      100000

Journals                                                                                                               500000

Health care                                                                                                         50000

Clothing                                                                                                               20000

Many extended family members (unaccounted for here)

Miscellaneous                                                                                                   30000

Tithe (unaccounted for in this analysis)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total annual expenditure                                                                            2,980,000




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annual deficit                                                                                                   580,000

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What a shame!

I plead again that the time is very ripe to do the right!

I rest my altruistic case.




Engr. Dr. C. C. Nnaji
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Nigeria, Nsukka

https://thenewkokoro.com/2020/09/22/524/

AmeLonRo:
https://thenewkokoro.com/2020/09/22/524/

BY C. C. NNAJI

Let me begin with an appeal.
University lecturers are our children, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, molders, partners in progress and many more.
Appeal to parents, students and all stakeholder.
The time is ripe to do the right!

The argument revolving around the survival of the educational sector in general and Nigerian universities in particular has been raging for decades. But never have we come so close, face to face, with an imminent collapse unless drastic measures are taken. In this article, I will be as analytical, objective and as factual as possible so that those who pretend to be deaf might hear. By this exposé, I intend to rouse all and sundry to rally round the Nigerian Lecturer and put up a last minute struggle in order to forestall the looming tragedy.




*The First Shock*




The Nigerian Lecturer is the most abused, misused, exploited, misunderstood and manipulated civil servant in the country. When he assumes duty, he is sent into the fray empty-handed. He is not given any kick-off allowance and to begin with, he has to save up money for months to buy the laptop which he will use to discharge his duties. I am sure you know that a good laptop costs between #200,000 and #500,000, or even more. Now a Graduate Assistant who earns less than #120,000 will save for nearly six months to buy a laptop, given that he also has to pay rent, eat, clothe himself, and pay transport fare to and from work.

Even a senior lecturer cannot comfortably buy a laptop, his basic work implement, without undertaking a rigorous saving scheme. I am typing this treatise from a London-used laptop which still cost me a fortune – a laptop probably used by a white kid to play video games in their backyard, and only had to get rid of because his taxi-driver dad has upgraded him to a super speed version.




*Did you know that lecturers are the only group of workers I know who are expected to provide/source for their own wok implements?*




Now lecturers in some universities buy markers for teaching students. Then, they are also expected to conduct research from their salaries, sponsor themselves to conferences and workshops as well as publish in top notch journals. To publish in a top notch journal, you need to have access to state-of-the-art laboratory and conducive working environment with high speed internet access. No Nigerian university qualifies in this regard. But I still find it a feat that these impoverished, neglected and ill-equipped lecturers still manage to rear their “stubborn” black heads in the global intellectual playing field. They even go as far as making it to the editorial board membership of top journals in the field colonized by unrepentant and hard-to-please white supremacists. Lecturers are expected to spend their salaries to write tons of research proposals (which hardly materialize) in order to attract funds to buy equipment for teaching and research.

Then there is also the issue of internet access and affiliated costs. Many Nigerian universities do not provide internet access to their staff. Even when they pretend to, it is only a low speed sporadic network concocted to give a semblance of conformity. Imagine a professor with his laptop in his hand, chasing internet signal from one tree shade to another. How can he ever be efficient? Sadly, the Nigerian Lecturer is supposed to pay for the service (un)rendered. Many who cannot “chase” the signal retire to their offices and fall back on epileptic data bundle sold by capitalist service providers.

Personally, I spend nearly #90,000 annually on data bundle to perform my statutory assignment. I can hear you shout _propaganda_ ! Now let me take you through. I use the MTN weekly 6GB data subscription that costs #1,500 and sometimes I exhaust it in about four days. Assuming I renew my subscription five times a month, that would amount to #7,500 per month… Now your jaw drops as you realize how serious and factual the matter is! I am sure some people spend more.




*Did you know that it could take years to get published in impact factor rated journals* , yet these “ne’er-do-wells” (in the minds of the uninformed) called Nigerian lecturers still publish thousand of papers in these journals? I have once had to wait for




two solid and uncertain years to have one of my papers published. The situation is further worsened by some publishers who insist on compulsory open access publication which imposes on the prospective author a huge financial burden. A typical example is world class Swiss-based publisher known as MDPI  that charges up to 2000CHF article processing charge per accepted paper. This amount translates to about #1,030,000 per paper! Are you kidding me? Please visit https://www.mdpi.com/apc to verify this claim. This is besides whatever was spent to conduct and report the research, and the Nigerian Lecturer has no choice but to cough out the money “from his intestine” if he has to, or go borrowing!

Yes, I hear you loudly grumbling about the amount of money budget by TETFUND for research. A detailed survey will reveal that the political exertion needed to access the paltry sum awarded in the name of TETFUND grant in many universities is not worth it. A number of countries including China and South Africa fund their lecturers to conduct research and thereafter pay them for publishing the paper in a good journal. In fact, an average researcher in South Africa could earn as much money, if not more, from publications alone as a professor in a Nigerian university would earn as annual salary. Who did this to us?  Please conduct your independent survey. It is unfortunate that Nigeria and Nigerians (including students) want the Nigerian Lecturer to turn into a street beggar before they understand his plight.

Maybe we need to stop using our salaries to buy marker. We can return to the era of the blackboard, and on our way to work we would stop by the “ _akara_ ” woman’s shop and pick up some pieces of charcoal for our lectures! Did you know that the monthly take-home of a Nigerian senator can pay over thirty Nigerian professors? And this is besides constituency allowance and all the other funnels of income (legal and illegal, but mostly illegal) that senators have created from themselves by exploiting the constitution. I do not know of any senator who uses his salary to do his job.




*Luxury is fast becoming a mirage*




What if the Graduate Assistant wants to buy a car? I do not consider a car as a luxury. By the way, no Nigerian lecturer I know or have heard of can buy a brand new car. That’s an illusion that only comes true in the most delightful of dreams.  A fairly used (tokumbo) car costs between #1,500,000 and #2,500,000. Now a Senior Lecturer who earns just about #200,000 will have to save up his entire salary for about ten months to buy a car rejected by a street sweeper in New York.  And for him to do that, he has very limited options ranging from taking a loan, extorting money from students, or taking up an extra job. What about a house? It can take a lecturer an average of fifteen years to build a modest house, and this comes with enormous degree of discipline and self-denial.

The Nigerian Lecturer cannot even afford the flight ticket to one of the smallest African countries for a vacation or short course let alone Europe or America. Yet, he is supposed to collaborate with international partners and be abreast of recent developments in his field. No wonder politicians can now easily buy over a professor at a paltry sum to falsify election results!

*Way Forward*

I know opinions might be vastly divergent on this but I will humbly proffer a simple solution. Firstly there should be a drastic review of the salary of the Nigerian Lecturer. The salary should be readjusted to an African average, at the very least. Did you know that as at 2017, an equivalent of a Graduate Assistant in a Ghanaian polytechnic was earning an equivalent of #350,000, while a professor in Tanzania was earning over #1,000,000 as at 2016? Both of these cases represent three times the salary of their counterparts in Niger-area. Secondly, all recurrent expenses like research/publication, conferences/workshops, internet access, etc. incurred should be dis-aggregated from salary and paid as allowance monthly. Thirdly and lastly, politicians should steer clear of our universities if sanity and sanctity must be restored.

Below is a conservative expenditure of a Senior Lecture on #200,000 per month

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annual Income                 2,400,000                                                             Expenses

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rent @ 20,000 per month                                                                            240000

Feeding & water @ #100,000 per month                                               1200000

Transport fare                                                                                                   240000

Data bundle                                                                                                       120000

Electricity                                                                                                             120000

School Fees (assuming 4 kids)                                                                    360000

Conferences                                                                                                      100000

Journals                                                                                                               500000

Health care                                                                                                         50000

Clothing                                                                                                               20000

Many extended family members (unaccounted for here)

Miscellaneous                                                                                                   30000

Tithe (unaccounted for in this analysis)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total annual expenditure                                                                            2,980,000




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annual deficit                                                                                                   580,000

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What a shame!

I plead again that the time is very ripe to do the right!

I rest my altruistic case.




Engr. Dr. C. C. Nnaji
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Nigeria, Nsukka

https://thenewkokoro.com/2020/09/22/524/

How about numerous lecturers collecting 'sorting money'. How about the numerous girls being ploughed on by our crying lecturers?

Very interesting article and as much as I understand the plight of these lecturers, I would like to point out the following:

1.Teachers and lectures in South Africa also can't just afford those things you listed and it old also take them ages to just buy a house or a car or a laptop. The only difference is the credit system.. which (as I recall) is frowned upon by a majority of Africans.

2. As much as our budget allocates funds for universities, students also pay a lot. When I finished university I had over R100000 student debt in my name. Im still paying it off btw.

I'm just pointing these things out so that students and lecturers can know that it isn't always rosey on the other side.

Too much of sentiments. They go on strike asking for increase in salaries. Why not ask for infrastructural developments?

The new millennium saw the wake of developmental fees, what are these funds spent on?

Almost every VC has a corruption allegation over their heads, why are these lectures not ensuring that corruption loopholes are blocked through proper institutionalization of processes. Why teach something they can't even apply?

GboyegaD:
Too much of sentiments. They go on strike asking for increase in salaries. Why not ask for infrastructural developments?

The new millennium saw the wake of developmental fees, what are these funds spent on?

Almost every VC has a corruption allegation over their heads, why are these lectures not ensuring that corruption loopholes are blocked through proper institutionalization of processes. Why teach something they can't even apply?

The VC is an Oga lecturer appointed by the govt. So, the govt is supposed to check them not the subodinate lecturers. Cases brought up by the lecturers are not attended to by the govt.

Minxie:
Very interesting article and as much as I understand the plight of these lecturers, I would like to point out the following:

1.Teachers and lectures in South Africa also can't just afford those things you listed and it old also take them ages to just buy a house or a car or a laptop. The only difference is the credit system.. which (as I recall) is frowned upon by a majority of Africans.

2. As much as our budget allocates funds for universities, students also pay a lot. When I finished university I had over R100000 student debt in my name. Im still paying it off btw.

I'm just pointing these things out so that students and lecturers can know that it isn't always rosey on the other side.

So your point is that since the government vastly subsides education, it should be of the poorest quality that is incapable of stimulating genuine development? Or that lecturers have no plausible ground to challenge the festering rot and the criminal neglect of tertiary education in Nigeria? In all this and with particular reference to your experience, you can't compare South Africa's infrastructural development to Nigeria's. This is more poignant if one considers the depraved opulence that envelope political office holders, it becomes clear that Nigeria has misplaced its priority.

I can bet my heart and my mind that this objective, well-articulated thread will draw the ire of ignorant, clueless, and pleasure-loving Nigerian youths, who can't differentiate what is a pressure group -- that is, ASUU, and the honcho of a university, which actually runs the university -- the VC that represents the government.

mrblessed:
So your point is that since the government vastly subsides education, it should be of the poorest quality that is incapable of stimulating genuine development? Or that lecturers have no plausible ground to challenge the festering rot and the criminal neglect of tertiary education in Nigeria? In all this and with particular reference to your experience, you can't compare South Africa's infrastructural development to Nigeria's. This is more poignant if one considers the depraved opulence that envelope political office holders, it becomes clear that Nigeria has misplaced its priority.

I can bet my heart and my mind that this objective, well-articulated thread will draw the ire of ignorant, clueless, and pleasure-loving Nigerian youths, who can't differentiate what is a pressure group -- that is, ASUU, and the honcho of a university, which actually runs the university -- the VC that represents the government.

No you misunderstood. I was simply saying that getting education to the level where it should be is not simply gonna come from one focus point. There are many areas that need to be fixed in order to pay lecturers more.

My point was: They will always worry about salaries because the stuff mentioned in the article (house, car, laptop etc) is difficult for anyone to get especially when using a cash based system. The comparison with what a salary can buy wasn't very thorough because most lecturers in the world can't buy those things in cash.

So even if the lecturers get a salary increase, there are deeper issues that will keep coming up. I do agree with the universities needing more funding from government especially for research. Again, im not disagreeing with the issue at hand. Just pointing out that the comparison of what salaries can buy is a bit faulty.

Minxie:
No you misunderstood. I was simply saying that getting education to the level where it should be is not simply gonna come from one focus point. There are many areas that need to be fixed in order to pay lecturers more.

My point was: They will always worry about salaries because the stuff mentioned in the article (house, car, laptop etc) is difficult for anyone to get especially when using a cash based system. The comparison with what a salary can buy wasn't very thorough because most lecturers in the world can't buy those things in cash.

So even if the lecturers get a salary increase, there are deeper issues that will keep coming up. I do agree with the universities needing more funding from government especially for research. Again, im not disagreeing with the issue at hand. Just pointing out that the comparison of what salaries can buy is a bit faulty.

What obtains in most countries -- a fact you referenced with the example of South Africa -- is a system of education financing, whereby people are sponsored to obtain college/university degree, and pay back after they begin to work. Of course, they are certain to get jobs after they finish schooling; hence, the credit system is highly effective. It might interest you to know that president Obama finished paying his education debt just few months before becoming president.

Since every labourer needs his tools to be productive, I have to quickly disagree that the things mentioned in the article are difficult to provide by the Nigerian government. I will also reiterate that it is purely an issue of misplaced priority and lack of good governance that started since the late 1980s. The article raised the issue of poor salaries and even made comparison with other African countries that have better pay compared to Nigeria. It also showed the limitations suffered by lecturers, which hinder them to perform their job effectively, leading some of them to engage in unethical practices. In developed world, including South Africa, issues like internet connection, power supply, grant for research, etc. are things taken for granted. But these amenities are seen as luxuries to the university community in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has the capacity to provide these amenities if it is serious to persue genuine development, which is anchored by research-driven output of universities.

Nigerian politicians have successfully destroyed public primary and secondary education; their aim is to replicate same to tertiary education. This is the thrust of ASUU's perennial struggle with the government.

Samakus:
How about numerous lecturers collecting 'sorting money'. How about the numerous girls being ploughed on by our crying lecturers?

I feel like you’re a mad man for quoting the entire text again. But no worries it’s only a feeling.

CONUASS is over due for an upward review

University professor should earn nothing less than 1 million monthly, all allowances consolidated but presently he earns about 350k ..
An decent piece of land in a city centre is around 5m. When can a lecturer afford this from his salary let alone build house?

iamadonis2:
I feel like you’re a mad man for quoting the entire text again. But no worries it’s only a feeling.

I just liked your comment. Have a good day

Samakus:
I just liked your comment. Have a good day

You, too, Boss.

All Nigeria university lecturers should be prosecuted and jailed for sexual assault, money for marks, sex for mark, intimidation, harassment, illegal sale of substandard lesson notes, admission racketeering and moral decadence.

In short, Thunder should strike all Nigeria's university love.

Looking at the way lectures look down and deliberately make students suffer for nothing, I feel the money they are paid is too much sef
My exam script in one course when i was in 200L was missing due to negligence in handling of students answer booklets. When results were out, my course adviser told me to leave her office that it wasn't her business. I had to resit for the course.
Most of the lecturers are wicked because they feel they are above students.

I feel their salary should be reduced.
Nonsense post.

11Anonymous:
Looking at the way lectures look down and deliberately make students suffer for nothing, I feel the money they are paid is too much sef
My exam script in one course when i was in 200L was missing due to negligence in handling of students answer booklets. When results were out my course adviser told me to leave her office that it wasn't her business. I had to resit for the course.
Most of the lecturers are wicked because they feel they are above students.

I feel their salary should be reduced.
Nonsense post.

And their tax should be increased. Useless unfortunate people. I would have sent one idiotic nincompoop lecturer to meet the devil his father if not that the unfortunate miscreant gave me an "E" in a course that I was the best in the class. If the mad nitwit had given me a "F" as he threatened, I would have sent every member of his village to go and wait for me in hell. After all if you kill one person, you will go to hell, and if you kill a whole race, you will go to same hell.

mrblessed:
What obtains in most countries -- a fact you referenced with the example of South Africa -- is a system of education financing, whereby people are sponsored to obtain college/university degree, and pay back after they begin to work. Of course, they are certain to get jobs after they finish schooling; hence, the credit system is highly effective. It might interest you to know that president Obama finished paying his education debt just few months before becoming president.

Since every labourer needs his tools to be productive, I have to quickly disagree that the things mentioned in the article are difficult to provide by the Nigerian government. I will also reiterate that it is purely an issue of misplaced priority and lack of good governance that started since the late 1980s. The article raised the issue of poor salaries and even made comparison with other African countries that have better pay compared to Nigeria. It also showed the limitations suffered by lecturers, which hinder them to perform their job effectively, leading some of them to engage in unethical practices. In developed world, including South Africa, issues like internet connection, power supply, grant for research, etc. are things taken for granted. But these amenities are seen as luxuries to the university community in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has the capacity to provide these amenities if it is serious to persue genuine development, which is anchored by research-driven output of universities.

Nigerian politicians have successfully destroyed public primary and secondary education; their aim is to replicate same to tertiary education. This is the thrust of ASUU's perennial struggle with the government.

I agree with you that basic things especially aren't provided. I also think education in Nigeria is heavily underfunded. Im just saying that when the commitment of funding is going to be made, people should realise that they will also be expected to change things. As in higher taxes, credit system, job creation (especially the private sector), higher tuition etc. These things are all needed to make successful funding possible. WHich is why I mentioned the student debt part. The general society must realise that they have to sacrifice to make it happen. The same economic and social model can't be followed if better education is the aim.

Good luck and you have the support of South Africa. As you know, the feesmustfall movement addresses similar issues. I've always wanted to study at a Nigerian university so I wish you the best.