Get 100 PhDs, save N800m: A letter to Arewa governors

I’m reluctant to use this column again to write (criticize you’ll call it, I’m sure) to you of education in our region.  However, that doesn’t mean I won’t do it, I’m just reluctant. Or, if you will, I’m ambivalent – of two minds.  On the one hand is the little matter of insensitivity.   One of […]

I’m reluctant to use this column again to write (criticize you’ll call it, I’m sure) to you of education in our region.  However, that doesn’t mean I won’t do it, I’m just reluctant. Or, if you will, I’m ambivalent – of two minds.  On the one hand is the little matter of insensitivity.   One of you, after all, paid N80million to charter a plane to Saudi Arabia to perform this year’s Hajj – with 20 of his lackeys tagging along. That money, according to my plan below, can be used to sponsor over 200 PhDs in four years. 
 On the other, among you are those who, fortunately, have initiated impressive educational programmes.  A ready is example is Kwankwaso’s “500 Postgraduates” i.e. the number of students the governor sent abroad to study for their master’s degrees.  This is to say nothing of the over 20 tertiary and vocational institutions he created or the 100 girls his government sponsored to study medicine or his 100 pilots in training.  Thus, some of you are working; but those are few and far between.
Yet, many readers would think none of you would listen or read about the plan of the almost cost-free postgraduate degrees I’m trying to introduce to you.  But I know some of you (or your people) do read this column; indeed, I’ve been invited by a few of your colleagues due to my rants on this page – even though our conversations due to those calls led to naught.
However, even if none of you read this, I want individual readers to pay attention to the details I’m going to give below so that they can take benefits from the opportunity.  No. No governor is needed to actualize the plan.  I’m merely writing the governors because of their capacity to organize.  It would be better to have, for example, the Niger State governor sponsoring 100 PhDs than the trickle effect of one Nda here and one Nda there.  It would also be easier to centralize and evaluate the performance of the  programme.  Most importantly, you can use it to plan for the future – even though the future is not a place for which many of you plan.
This plan is simple – unless you choose to complicate it.  Every state has started or is starting a university; to say nothing of the colleges of education, polytechnics, etc.  Some of the departments in these institutions in the North are peopled by teachers from other regions of Nigeria.  Not that this is a bad thing; but it can be: lecturers with PhDs are scarce now, and with private and state universities sprouting everywhere, these lecturers could choose to go back to their states – leaving us with nothing.
I know it costs a lot to mint one PhD but what if you don’t have to pay?  What if there is a university which would pay the tuition fees of your PhD students and give them monthly stipend (of N116, 000) to boot?  Dear governors, would you be interested?
From my calculations, the studentship from this university (tuition fee and monthly allowance) for a PhD student is worth N2 million per year.  The studentship for a qualified candidate is good for four years.  That totals N8 million per candidate.  Send 100 students to this university and you save N800 million.
Let me tell you more about this university.  It’s rated 5-star and tier-5 (which means excellent) by its national government – these are the two measures of the quality of universities by the government.  It’s ranked among the top 250 universities in Asia by QS.  It also ranks relatively well in the world in the fields of engineering.  The university was also adjudged first in the employability of its students in Malaysia.  Finally, it’s among the top 15 in Malaysia.  
Research Clusters
Since, PhD is a research degree, following are the university’s research clusters:
Civil Engineering (Structures, Materials & Construction, Geotechnics & Highway, Water & Environmental Engineering); Computer and Information Sciences (Intelligent Systems, Software Engineering / E-Commerce, Multimedia & Communication Systems); Mechanical Engineering (Deep Water Technology, Advance Materials & Processes, Reliability & Asset Management, Hybrid Vehicles); Chemical Engineering (Process System Engineering, Separation Process & Thermodynamics, Advanced Materials & Reaction Engineering, Environmental Engineering); Electrical & Electronics Engineering (Intelligent Imaging, Communications, Automation & Control Systems, Pervasive Systems, Electronic Materials & Devices, Energy & Power); Management & Humanities (Business & Management, Language and Communication, Culture & Behavioural Sciences); Geosciences & Petroleum (Enhanced Oil Recovery, Integrated Basin Analysis, Advanced Seismic Technology, Rock Physics & Reservoir Characterization, Unconventional Oil)
Postgraduate Programmes Offered
And the following are the programmes it offers.
MSc and PhD in Mechanical, Chemical, Petroleum, Civil, Electrical and Electronics Engineering.  MSc and PhD in Petroleum Geoscience, Information Technology, Social Science and Humanities and Management.  MSc and PhD in Science (Chemistry, Physics and Statistics).  Finally it has MPhil in Management and Social Sciences.
As I started earlier, your governments do not have to pay anything.  But if you feel charitable (and it’s the only way this will qualify as sponsorship), you could pay the air tickets for the students.  The last time I checked, a return ticket, economy class to Malaysia is about N250, 000 i.e. roughly N300, 000.  If you’re paying for 100 students, that would be N30 million.  You see, it’s far cheaper than the N80million your colleague paid for 20 people to go to Saudi.
This opportunity applies to only master’s degree and PhD, but the calculation is based on what a PhD student receives.  Also, only students under 40 years with CGPA of 3.5 out 5 are qualified to apply.
Take action now to plant knowledge and charity that will last forever.
Yours truly,
Ibraheem Dooba, Ph.D.