Federal universities: Abolishing a very colonial carryover (I)

It occurred to me that the phrase ‘federal university’ is a misnomer for the new age and for the federalism of which we are still searching for the ‘true/pure’ type. Students under the National Association of Nigerian Students shut down Lagos local and international airports on September 19 vowing to continue their action in other […]

It occurred to me that the phrase ‘federal university’ is a misnomer for the new age and for the federalism of which we are still searching for the ‘true/pure’ type. Students under the National Association of Nigerian Students shut down Lagos local and international airports on September 19 vowing to continue their action in other parts of the country for a week. Their agony is palpable, and we just have to pity these hapless young folks. They are caught in-between a broke federal government and a wounded Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). What is the way forward really? A week later, the government obtained a court order asking the university lecturers to go back to work; a decision which the lecturers’ union promised to immediately appeal. When that did not work it ordered vice chancellors to reopen the universities and commence lectures. However, the following day it rescinded its decision.   

I had written earlier about how – in my humble opinion – we all seem to have misunderstood the whole concept of education – which is to solve extant problems of society and to prepare for the future. That assertion still stands. We have spent too much time looking at education as something to have (certificates), just to obtain bragging rights, to shine, to oppress, and to earn money and affix titles to our names. Our universities are meant to be repositories of knowledge and intellectualism, but it is doubtful whether cohesive brainstorming goes on in most of them, to impact society at large. Much indiscipline crept in and anyone observing from afar will have concluded that we as a people could not run anything. Male students went into cultism, girls did high class prostitution, the university administration embezzled otherwise inadequate funds, lecturers played truancy and took advantage of students and so on. And since bad money is likely to chase out good money, these atrocities became the defining features for our tertiary institutions, not the good, hard work that majority do in the system. 

This strike that ends all strikes is simply an indication that the university system is having to go through such a painful process of metamorphosis, when such a change ought to have been spurred automatically from within. The university system ought to have reformed itself but there are several problems with that. Academia the world over has evolved to be self-protective. This is evident in how difficult it is for new ideas to permeate. Even professors with unorthodox ideas are frozen out and cancelled in the intellectual community. Qualifications for entry – and even acceptable articles in the topmost journals – are skewed towards those who can reinforce, not challenge orthodoxy. Therefore, for Africa and Nigeria especially, we are stuck with recycling very outdated ideas.   

The situation is more callous for Africa and by extension Nigeria, because there is so much to grapple with. The educational system imposed via colonialism was alien to us. It meant we had to jettison what we had – which may have been slower and largely undocumented. It also means that our academics have largely seen themselves as custodians and protectors of what the white man handed down – not challengers of it. This has also led to our underdevelopment and of course inability to have profound reforms in our universities as reflected in the maintenance of colonial arrangements called ‘federal universities’. It could also be that some have tried in the past and been shot down. Could there be ideological links between our academics here and there mentors abroad? For when ideology is concerned, people become very rigid. Or could it be that years of financial neglect made many of our academics give up and start seeking their own wellbeing? It could be a combination of these factors. Bottom line is that we are saddled with a mess, and things have come to a head. The best the Buhari administration may hope to do, is patch things up for the next administration, and somehow beg the lecturers to resume work. 

Professor Eyitope Ogunmodede, the Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, one of Nigeria’s topmost universities gave one of the most profound insights on this matter when he described the funding challenges that university administration goes through. I cannot get it off my mind that students still pay N90 (Ninety Naira or barely 15 cents) for a whole year’s accommodation, and some N10,000 ($15 or less) per annum for tuition in what we call our federal universities. According to him, when universities try to increase these fees and charges, they meet with riots from students, protests or strikes by the lecturers’ union and indeed the government chests out to say no need and that all bills will be met by it. This is not sensible at all. Why did we think that because universities were free in 1960 they must remain free today?  

Now, I attended a state university – the type that the ASUU president called quack universities. But it so happens that state universities are a legitimate idea in a federalism, but federal universities are not. Indeed, state universities – given the lean resources of the states – have always charged some fees and are a little more flexible than federal ones for state laws are a lot easier to amend. I believe that university administration requires such flexibility. Contributions from states and federal – as it is done in America – will then be worked out but not as a big, choking burden around the neck of an already-overburdened federal or state government. 

The future of universities in Nigeria is fully private. The brickbats flying between federal government and the lecturers’ union today points to that very clearly. The current model is clearly unsustainable and will soon jettison itself. By every means, the federal universities at the centre of today’s strikes will likely come off more damaged than they were before. Already private universities are cashing out big time as parents who had hitherto tried to avoid the fees are now getting more inventive and are trying to save their children and wards some time. The government will have to understand that its remit is to concentrate on basic education – perhaps up to secondary school level or vocational skills studies. The rest must have to spin-off. Ultimately, our universities must be totally independent. 

I have tried to find out all over the developed world and there are nowhere the universities are owned by the Federal Government. Even in highly-centralised China, the states own most of the universities. In the USA, from where we copied our federalism, there is no university owned by the Federal Government in Washington. The same for the UK, our colonizer. Westminster is not running any university. I am open to more knowledge in this area, but it looks like it is not just a tenable idea. Running a university or getting involved in their daily affairs, appointment, and regular funding for salaries etc, is just too granular than to be handled by the federal government. I believe this idea started because of our colonial past