Nigeria running dual education system – Prof Ogunyemi

Professor Biodun Ogunyemi is the national president of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). In this Interview with AMEH JOHN, the renowned academic speaks on Nigerian politicians’ penchant for foreign education for their children and the implication on Nigeria’s tertiary education, among other issues.

What is your take on the minister of education, Adamu’s recent claim that the federal government had surpassed UNESCO’s 26 per cent annual budgetary benchmark for education?

The essence of setting a benchmark for educational development or educational funding is to guide countries in the developing world on how to use their education as a fulcrum for transforming their society. The challenge we have in Nigeria is that because of the deplorable state of our educational system, in fact, we may even have to go beyond 26 per cent to make impact. The impact we are talking about now is very visible now.  For instance, look at the state of our public primary and secondary schools, look at the state of our higher institutions, just visit any of the public universities, polytechnics or colleges of education, and you will find that but for the intervention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), many of them would have been in a sorry state. So, the rot and decay that we noticed in the education sector has not been significantly addressed, because when you talk of tertiary education, in particular, much of the impact we see there are from TETFund, and the TETFund was even a creation of ASUU. It was in 1992 that we fought for private sector contribution to the development of education, and that was what gave rise to the two per cent education tax from the private companies in Nigeria. So, if the minister of education, Adamu says Nigeria has surpassed the 26 per cent annual budgetary benchmark for education, we are not convinced because we have not seen the impact.

If you look at the federal government budget in the last three years, what you will see there is just around seven per cent on the average. And state governments would say they have budgeted 20 per cent, but at the end of the day, they may not release as much as 20 per cent.

And many of these state-owned institutions are being proliferated without plans for them. For example, the federal government keeps creating new tertiary institutions. The last time we were at the National Assembly, we heard that there were as many as 83 tertiary institutions that were being proposed, out of which 18 or 20 will be universities. So, they want to have university of transportation, University of Technology, University of Environment. I don’t know where that is done in any part of the world. So, all these areas that they want to create specialised universities for are already part of the conventional universities and that is the way to go. If you need more space for admission of students, expand the existing facilities, and let the country move in a positive direction. Proliferating educational institution may not help us at the end because the impact will not be there. So, if they (FG) say they have surpassed the 26 per cent, we have not seen the impact and we are not sure about that.

What can you say about the ruling class’ penchant for foreign education for their children and wards?

Our union (ASUU) has always said that many of those who claim to lead us in this country do not love the country, because they are grooming a society of class. The children of the rich would go special schools (private schools), while the children of the poor are confined to public schools which have no facilities and teachers. So, even within Nigeria, it is happening not to talk of abroad. You see, what you have now is in sharp contrast with what we had in the Second Republic. I can tell you that in the Republic, Chief Jakande’s children, former governor of Lagos state, were going to public secondary schools, and the teachers in all public schools were forced to sit-up, and that also encouraged the ministry officials to do their work. In that Republic, the grandson of Chief Obafemi Awolowo went to a public university in Nigeria. Those were the times we had patriots as leaders. Those we have today, actually do not understand what it means to be a leader, because you are a leader when your life reflects what you say. That is what we call leadership by example. That is the most effective leadership. But, if you are condemning public schools and you have not sat back to think how well the schools are; when universities here are sick and nobody is attending to them, and top public officeholders like the president and vice president take their children abroad, then how do you want Nigerians to believe in what you are saying about using education as a lever for the country’s development? Nobody will believe you! And that is why what we continue to see is lip-service to the education sector. Even the average technocrat is aspiring to take his or her children outside Nigeria for schooling. And why ASUU has been advocating for improvement in the education section and threatening to go on strike, is because we cannot afford the cost of foreign training for our children. Majority of academics cannot afford the cost of foreign training for their children. So, we don’t want a situation in which their own (politicians’) children will come back from Europe and America to enslave our own children, because that is what they do. When they give their children the best of education, when they come back to Nigeria, they come back and plant them as our leaders again. So, they will be the ones to be lead our children. And that is why you see ASUU fighting and struggling passionately in a bid to equalise opportunities. We cannot equalize opportunities when you give better education to the children of the rich and a deficient education to the children of the poor. It is segregation, but what they don’t know is that if they continue like that a time will come when the children of the poor will be forced to revolt against the children of the rich; they and their children will not be safe.  So, nobody should be condemning ASUU because what we are doing is to ensure that we don’t continue in this circle of segregated education, because that is a local apartheid; policy of separate development where we have good education either locally or abroad for the children of the rich and poor and deficient education for the children of the poor, because the rich who are in government are not ready to support the education of the poor. They are not ready to create opportunities for the children of the poor to access good quality education. So, it will not help the nation at the end of the day.

What is ASUU’s stance on the process of the appointment of vice chancellors in public universities?

Concerning the process of appointing vice chancellors in Nigerian public universities, the policy is that a vice chancellor can come

from anywhere provided that professor or the scholar can fulfill the conditions or meet the requirements. Because universities are market of scholars, and that is why a scholar in Nigeria can go to Britain (to take a job). If he or she can demonstrate knowledge and actually compete favourably there, he or she can rise to the pinnacle to even become the vice chancellor in that university. For instance, I have seen Nigerians who are vice chancellors in South Africa and we have seen Asians who have been made vice chancellors in Europe. So, that is the way universities operate. It’s a universal market of knowledge. So, we don’t insist that a vice chancellor must come from a particular university and the same time we don’t encourage corruption in the process.

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