following Wednesday’s approval of 20 new private universities by the
Federal Executive Council (FEC).
In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Benin,
the stakeholders said there was nothing to justify the approval, when
the existing universities were neither adequately funded nor properly
monitored to ensure compliance, with appropriate guidelines.
Prof. Monday Omoregie, the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU), University of Benin chapter, said that he had begun
to see approval of more universities as political patronage, despite
warnings, to the relevant authorities, on the inherent danger.
Omoregie said that expanding the existing universities would perform the
functions the new ones were established to do.
According to him, education remains the vibrant instrument for
development, hence the need for the government to do the needful in
ensuring that the schools are run the way they are supposed to.
“Education is a social service, but these private universities are
established by investors, who believe in profit making.
“The guideline is that private universities must be run for 15 years
before any plan of making profit, but which university can do that”, he
asked, saying that within a year of establishment, many proprietors
would begin to crave gain.
Speaking in a similar vein, Prof. Monday Igbafen, Chairman of ASUU,
Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, said that establishment of more
universities, without proper recourse to the challenges facing the
existing ones, was what the union had been trying to criticise.
“How do you justify the existence of additional universities, when there
is this cry that even the private universities that are running now lack
proper monitoring, to see if they comply with the NUC guidelines and
what is required to run a university.
“They are all just centres of where they collect people’s money. That is
why most of us are getting worried about the education system in the
country”, he said.
When told that the approval might be to expand access to university
education, Igbafen said that if properly funded one university in the
country might take a half of the population of prospective university
students.
“ABU (Ahmadu Bello University) can cater for almost half the population
of students we admit in this country, but there is nothing on ground to
sustain an ideal university.
“When you carry out objective assessment of these universities, you
discover that they are not really universities; they are just there to
divert our attention where the rich ones can send their children,
whereas they will not be properly trained in terms of developing minds.
“It is all about just dishing out degrees; not necessarily interested in
the content and quality of the product. It is just about giving out
first class and what is important is to get money. I think it is
necessary for government to reflect on some of all these decisions that
they have taken.
“If we have to advance the course of our educational development in this
country, it is not through proliferation of both private and public
universities”, he said.
Also reacting, Benjamin Egwu, the President of the Students’ Union
Government (SUG), said that the proliferation of private universities
would soon cripple the standard and patronage of public universities.
“The attention of students is being diverted to the private
universities, cause the situation of our public universities is
worrisome. The incessant industrial action by the ASUU is one factor,
while lack of proper funding is another.
“There is no need for the approval of more universities for now. These
private universities are to shift attention from public school, because
there is no much care about facilities in the public universities.
“The public universities are dying and if the situation is not properly
checked, it will lead to what is currently happening to public primary
and secondary schools in the country.
“If you compare the public and private primary and secondary schools,
the difference is clear. It is affecting the system negatively and that
is now moving to the higher institutions.
“It is getting to a situation where commoners would also not want to
train his children in the public universities because of the
environment”, he said.
Egwu bemoaned the obsolete state of facilities in the public university,
saying “when you walk into any public university, whether state or
federal, what you will see in its library are books of 1980s, 1990s.
“There are no update-to-date books in the libraries as we speak. Just
ask the librarian when last they updated their shelves.
“The auditorium we are using at the University of Benin was built in
1981; about 40 years ago, without maintenance”, Egwu said. (NAN)