Amosun and the scrapping of Tai Solarin University

And this is at all levels, I am afraid—from the Federal government and the last set of thirteen federal universities recently pronounced—I cannot yet say, put in place, for these universities are hardly, yet, in place, to the commercial universities, set up to for reasons of commoditization, profit-making by all kinds of individuals, private citizens, […]

And this is at all levels, I am afraid—from the Federal government and the last set of thirteen federal universities recently pronounced—I cannot yet say, put in place, for these universities are hardly, yet, in place, to the commercial universities, set up to for reasons of commoditization, profit-making by all kinds of individuals, private citizens, religious institutions, and so on, to the poorly thought-out state universities whose authorities must go cap-in-hand, plus declaration of political, partisan loyalty to almighty visitors, in order to get ludicrous subventions. In spite of all these misgivings that I have listed, rather haphazardly, there is certainly a criminal crisis of access to tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Less than twenty per cent of those who qualify to go to universities in our country get a space. It is therefore hardly imaginable that a State government, no matter how well-meaning, will receive kudos from me, for scrapping badly needed, hot-in-demand, universities.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s action of scrapping/ reducing into an Institute of Tai Solarin University of Education is the subject of this week’s column. It was originally a College of Education located at Ijagun, running the National Certificate of Education before it became a University in the year 2005. The College of Education was moved to Omu. I am definitely not an admirer of Gbenga Daniel. Indeed, I am rather disappointed by the way he carried on distracting himself from genuine governance to do political battles with known and faceless enemies—including his erstwhile benefactor, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and  Dimeji Bankole, the embattled former Speaker of the House Representatives who was recently, and I still think curiously, left off the hook for committing no legal crime, without any reference to the morality of the matter. Yet, it is important to ruminate over the circumstances, motivations and even vision informing Amosun, a progressive from the fold of the rampaging Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN) to decide to behead Tai Solarin University of Education. Here is Amosun who has taken a number of steps in the educational sector that are worth commending. A recent commentator, Olusegun Adebayo, on the educational exploits of the Governor, whom he evidently dotes on, gave a catalogue of positives, which I found on my Blackberry, some of which I have quickly checked out to be largely credible thus;  “On assumption of office” Governor Amosun. “cancelled all form (s) of school fees in all public primary and secondary schools in the State; distributed free textbooks and all learning materials to pupils 0f these schools; reduced tuition fees payable in all state higher institutions of learning; devoted 22 per cent of the 2012 budget to education; began payment of subventions and running costs to all educational institutions; began regular payment of teachers or workers salaries and allowances… and paid the Universal Basic Education counterpart fund for 2008 and 2009.”

Now, with these endearing outing—one, which if fully executed can only be surpassed by the educational programme of the sage, Chief Awolowo himself. What then is the rationale for shelving an existing university, instead of committing funds to actualize it? With a 22% commitment of the State’s annual budget to education—a feat that comes close to the UNESCO prescription and one which neither the Federal Government nor any state of the country comes close to, one’s expectation would be that Governor Amosun would rescue the badly and scantily capitalized tertiary institutions in the State and make them enviable tertiary citadels of learning. My genuine conviction is that the argument of mushrooming or proliferation of universities in Nigeria is mute, given the insatiate yearning for access into tertiary institutions in our country. Even the reality of underemployment of university graduates in our country is not a factor of overproduction. The expectation of a knowledge society of the neo-liberal age is that we expand skilled knowledge production rather than shrink it. What is actually the problem is the refusal of governments to grow jobs and expand the employment latitude of our country such that  with rapid economic growth, the volume of our human capital will be found to be grossly inadequate to man or national development drive and propensity. Unless there is a political reason—the usual structural discontinuity that has become commonplace in our society where in-coming governments tend to discontinue/abandon the projects of their predecessors and begin new ones which the government after it will also discontinue– it flies in the face of pragmatism and crass educational need for a government to scrap an existing university. With all its appalling record of non-performance, the out-gone Governor of Kogi State, Ibro Idris, took an enviable step of salvaging the Kogi State University which led to the accreditation of most of its programmes that were denied, within a year , under an experienced and seasoned university administrator, Professor Idachaba. This is the kind of action ( of revamping, reshaping and repositioning) one expects from a progressive Governor that we know Ibikunle Amosun to be, not decapitating a University and dressing it down in the garb of an Institute—a campus of another university.

A further untenable defense by the ‘stake-holder’ copiously referenced above is that, Ogun State does not need another public State University, given the situation that more economically viable States like Lagos, with its ‘staggering monthly eternally generated revenue of about N15billion a month has only five state-owned institutions,’ while Oyo state, by far a bigger and more populous state than Ogun has only four institutions.  The interested commentator is worried that Ogun State has ten state-owned institutions in addition to the four federal institutions and eight private higher institutions, bringing the total number of higher institutions to twenty-two. Rather than worry about the numerical strength of higher institutions in the state, what should be of paramount concern, which he has eloquently sated, is the politicization of the establishment of such institutions, which gives little or inadequate regard to the enormity of the infrastructural and resource input which such institutions require for viability and comfortable sustenance. That being the case, Governor Amosun has taken the correct, progressive decision of embarking on the enviable policy of committing a sizable proportion of the state revenue to education. With that commitment, it should be possible to rescue these institutions for the benefit of the citizenry. Ogun State is doubtlessly one of the states in this country in which education is a foremost industry. Irrespective of the motivation of the previous government in the state, the focus on tertiary education is an advancement of a unique legacy and inherited patrimony of the State. In any case, from an apt sentimental turf, finding a university to immortalize the late foremost educationist and social reformer like Tai Solarin is a politically correct action. An in-coming government, equally committed to the advancement of education in the state, should spare no fund in building the university to an enviable standard befitting the stature, vision and memory of the founder of Mayflower College, which at some point, was one of the best-run, highly coveted secondary schools in this country.

With every sense of responsibility, politics and other possible extraneous motivations aside, a progressive Governor like Ibikunle Amsoun should not find it beneath him or demeaning to rethink the unsettling decision of reducing Tai Solarin University of Education to an Institute of Education.