How we misunderstood education and ruined Nigeria (II)

Listen to what the OAU VC had to say about the fees paid today by students: The students still pay N90, with N2,500 maintenance fees, per session for accommodation even in situations where the session extends beyond 12 months. The N90 is the same amount I paid as a student in the same university in […]

Listen to what the OAU VC had to say about the fees paid today by students:

The students still pay N90, with N2,500 maintenance fees, per session for accommodation even in situations where the session extends beyond 12 months. The N90 is the same amount I paid as a student in the same university in the 1970s. The cost of the receipt issued for the payment is probably more than the amount paid and it would have been more “economical” for the university if offered free! The charging of “fees” is not supported by the federal government but in OAU, undergraduate students pay “Departmental charges” of N5,000 per session for Arts, N10,000 for Sciences, Social Sciences, Technology and Law, and N15,000 for Medicine and other courses in the Health Sciences. These charges were fixed over 20 years ago and the uproar that followed has ensured that it remained the same.

If anyone increases these fees, new riots will break out. Even ASUU is not in support. I have heard ASUU argue against ANY increases in fees. So, where does Nigeria find these trillions that they need for their arrears and for newly demanded salary increases? Why must university education continue to be the olden days indicator of elitism? Yes, we haven’t been good to our artisans. But many people who don’t work in regular white-collar stuff have been cashing out for years now. Times have changed. Why are students, alumni, ASUU, not changing? Or is it distrust that university administration will misappropriate and embezzle funds? Whatever it is, I think we have all failed. And this impasse in the university system is a great indicator of why our country is here. We forgot – or we never knew – what education is supposed to achieve. We failed to see the role of dynamism and pragmatism. We held on to our guns and projected only selfish propositions that took care of our corner, while neglecting the collective.

I started to see why we have failed to develop; why we still expect the Chinese, the Europeans and others to come and help us. Perhaps it is a defect with the way we think. Or perhaps some of these entities tried in the past and have now determined that ‘no more. Let us join them and ruin everything’.

It gets worse. From the OAU VC’s write-up, even as broke as federal government (including the National Assembly) is. Hear: 

The federal government also insists that the annual appropriation budget had taken care of all necessary expenditure and that 25% of any income generated must even be remitted to the federal government. In 2020, the National Assembly passed a resolution that universities should refund Acceptance fees (N20,000 per newly admitted student for OAU)… Also, in October 2019, the University of Maiduguri introduced a modest increment in their charges and was forced to revert to the old charges by both the Senate and the House of Representatives. In ordering the University of Maiduguri to suspend the plan to raise the fees imposed, the House of Representatives concluded “irrespective of the justification that may have informed the decision, either to address operational and managerial realities of the school, such decision is ill-timed, given the desire by the federal government, the Borno State Government and well-meaning Nigerians to tackle the educational needs of Borno State and its environs.” … The University of Benin announced a similar increase in some charges in September 2021 which also had to be reversed. 

The days of community contribution for the mythical Okonkwo’s son to go abroad to study Classics, and he being welcomed by hordes of Atilogwu dancers, horse riders and the Nnukwu mmanwu of his village are long over. Population has ballooned. Globalization is the new norm. Certificates that earn money are now being earned via Youtube. Education is no longer something to be held in awe for by your extended family members, or a right for you to be lazy and earn money for doing nothing.  The days of lecturers constituting themselves into gods to be worshipped for their longevity and expiring knowledge has been eclipsed by this work-from-home phenomenon, whereby companies no longer even demand for certificates but for a demonstration of what you can achieve in real time. The world has again left us behind while we bickered with ourselves. 

Just in case I am still unclear, education is supposed to be for:

1. Creating a better, improving society, and the world at large, by creating policies, technologies, ideas that ease the pains of living for the majority.

2. Fighting for justice for the vulnerable, underprivileged, unfortunate, so that they may live better and contribute to society

3. To help people understand and navigate the world better and more competitively, and to teach others this art and science.

4. To enable us to be less selfish and get our priorities in life right, to be able to compete and cooperate better with nations. In general, to broaden our minds, worldview, possibilities and horizons.

If there is one thing education should have achieved in Nigeria, it is no 4 above. The fact that we still have people stealing in public service, robbing and defrauding in private sector, and most of us claiming to me members of our tribes before being Nigerians, and all the religious overdrive in our society, only shows that education – especially university education – has not achieved its aim in Nigeria, 73 years after University College, Ibadan. The fact that we are still at this point, especially with our public tertiary education, where the unions are dragging in one direction, with some billionaire union leaders making an effervescent corruption-laden career out of unionism, the equally corrupt government promises and fails, graduates are left to sort themselves anyhow, and students are left in limbo for months and years, shows that collectively, as a people, we have a mental malfunction and we don’t get what all the education should be about. That we have left 15 million children on the streets and none of us worries about this but we procreate millions more to join that army of zombies yearly, means that we are booking a place for ourselves where our nation will be ostracized from the comity of nations for our unpardonable, unforgiveable and idiotic mismanagement of our space, through the gross misunderstanding of what education should have achieved for us. I put it down to physical and mental laziness and the eagerness to self-gratify rather than considering the big picture. Perhaps it is a problem with our DNA or the water we drink. 

Can anyone see Nigeria in the future? Or have we become dinosaurs in real time?