On the 10th of July, 2013, the
students of the University of Lagos received a message from the SMS mobile
service -“LAG MOBILE” that read thus: “UNILAG students have not and aren’t
planning to stage or join any protest. Joining any protest is your risk.
UNILAG, (1st choice and nation’s pride) - Council of Faculty Presidents…10 July
2013”.
Please tell me this nonsense is
not coming from my student “leaders”. Are these persons speaking for Akokites
or for themselves? Who should actually instigate a protest against the poor
state of education if not the student leaders of the institution that prides
itself as the University of First Choice and nation’s pride? Where should the
protest start from if not from the university that has produced activists like
Tunde Bakare, kayode Fayemi and Ayodele Awojobi?
For those that are not aware of
student leadership in the University of Lagos, here is a brief description of
what operates over here. The student union government was proscribed in the
year 2005 following series of rioting led by the student union government in
the university under the vice chancellorship of professor Oye-Ibidapo Obe.
Since then, the students neither
have a uniform body that speak on their behalf nor represent them on the
student union level. Though, the “SUG” government is not in place, there are
student representatives across faculties and departments in the school. In a
bid to fill this vacuum, the presidents of the various faculties came together
under a platform called “Council of faculty presidents”.
Though, not a registered body
with the Dean of Student Affairs, the council of faculty presidents has been
instrumental to solving student problems on campus. A good example was the food
protests that brought about uniformity in the prices of items on campus.
But being a student leader goes
beyond having an office or having meetings with the DSA or vice chancellor, a
student leader should in actual fact be a genuine representative of its
subjects and not a stooge to neither a group nor the school authority or even,
the government. A reliable source disclosed that the presidents met with the
school authority and one of the conclusions raised was that as long as the
students agree not to participate in any form of protest in solidarity with
ASUU, the hall of residence will be open throughout the strike prompting the
SMS that was credited to them.
If this is true, then it
had actually reinforced my position that the future of Nigeria is not only
bleak but gloomy. Does it mean that the presidents of the faculties of the
University of Lagos are not privy of the issues that instigated the strike
action by ASUU? If students do not stage protests against the abysmal state of
the nation’s educational system, then what should they protest against?
It is as if this council does
not know what’s at stake at this stage of our national life. The issues that
were tendered by ASUU are numerous and few of them are the same time not within
the purview of the students but at the same time, there are quite a number of
them that are of more benefit to the students than the agitators (lecturers)
themselves.
The students of the University
of Ibadan under the leadership of the student union organized a protest on 11th
of July in solidarity with ASUU demanding the resignation of the minister of
education- professor Ruqayat Rufai. This is not the only time the students of
the University of Ibadan had stood for justice and on the side of common good
in the history of Nigeria as a similar scenario played out during the subsidy
protests.
A similar action was taken when
they came en masse to show some support to the students of the University of
Lagos when President Jonathan proposed that the name of the school be changed
from UNILAG to MAU. My question to the student leaders is this- what is your
position in all of this or would you continue to keep mum on this issue of
national importance?
If our student leaders in the
various tertiary institutions and the leadership of the National association of
Nigerian students (NANS) in general are actually concerned about the welfare of
students a fraction of how they rush to trade awards for money, they would by
now have state unequivocally their position to the government through press
releases, conferences, street demonstrations and even occupy the ministry of
education; but alas, like Nigerian Politrickcians, it is only money that unite
them not the welfare of whom they claim to represent.
Mr. Issa-Fagee while
addressing a press conference, urged all stake holders to come to the
rescue of the country’s educational and financial sectors from the hands of
wicked governments (state and federal) as the economy of the country
is “glaringly under the jugular clutches of Western economists, experts and
interests who promote exogenous (external) instead of endogenous (internal)
model of development” hence, “counting on the renewed support of the
media in challenging agents of underdevelopment who deny less-privileged
Nigerians quality higher education, health, employment and other
life-transforming elements of development”.
He goes further to equally
invite "labor activists, students, traders, professional groups, civil
society organizations and other progressive segments of the public to join our
determined efforts to save Nigeria from her captors".
Here is a brief summary
of ASUU’s demand that actually concerns the students in the universities
according to the July 1 2013 strike bulletin number 1:
An agreement was signed in 2009
which the federal government agreed to increase progressively, the annual
budgetary allocation to education to 26% between 2009 and 2020; render
assistance to state universities; set up research and development units by
companies operating in Nigeria, teaching and research equipment provision to
the laboratories and classrooms .
FUNDING OF THE SECTOR
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) recommends at that least 26% of the annual budget is to
be expended on education by any developing country like ours which had been
implemented by quite a handful of other African countries like Ghana who has never gone
below the recommendation since 2003 with an average allocation ranging between
26% and 35% of its annual budget to education. Kenya on her part dedicates at
least 24% while South Africa budgets an average of 26% to the education sector.
A breakdown of Nigeria’s (the giant of Africa) allocation
clearly legitimizes ASUU’s resolve to get the government to pay more attention
to the sector- The 2013 budget allocated N426.53bn to the education sector from
a total of N4.92trn representing 8.7%; In 2012, out of a total budget of
N4.7trn, less than 9% (N400.15bn) was spent on education of which N55.06bn was
allocated to capital expenditure, N345.09bn on recurrent to include N317.896bn
for personnel cost and N27.192bn for overheads with the main ministry proposal
of N5.491bn, MDGs- N2.173bn, parastatals- N5.196bn; universities- N14.411bn,
colleges of education- N4.555bn and unity colleges- N7.663bn.
Speaking at a lecture organized
by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities of the Federal
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, on Leadership and the Challenges of Higher
Education in Nigeria, Senator Babafemi Ojudu quoted a Nigerian professor to
have said that “Nigerian leaders for whatever reason have consistently
underfunded the educational sector even at the level of budget proclamations
which, as everybody knows, does not tell the full story about actual
expenditure. Is it any wonder then that Ghana’s better funded educational
sector has become a haven for Nigerian students seeking a modicum of quality
and order?”
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT UNITS
Universities all over the world take pride not only in teaching
but also in research. Serious countries fund their ivory towers to conduct
research in order to export their findings and discoveries to the industries
and the external world. This culture of research fund has not only been imbibed
by government and individuals (through donations) across the world but have
over the years produced desired results in the field of science, engineering,
psychology and even operation research. In the United States for instance,
there are lecturers whose job is strictly for conducting research leaving the
teaching of students in the hands of the academic ones.
The reverse is the case in Nigeria as not only do we have to
contend with inadequacy in the number of staff (teaching and non-teaching), the
few we have are not properly motivated. It is so sad that in the 21st century,
some lecturers do not have offices and some even share with their colleagues in
our universities. Is it a surprise that we import everything even toothpick?
According to Ojudu, In 1995, at the time Nigeria
could boast of only 711 scientific publications, South Africa had 3, 413,
Brazil had 5, 440, while India had 14, 883.
The setting up of the research and development units would not
only be instrumental to the scientific progress of the nation but will also
attract significant attention by “brains” from universities of other countries;
the unit, if in place will enhance research activities on campus and also
promote effective collaboration of Nigeria scholars with industries across the
world.
PROVISION TO THE LABORATORIES
AND CLASSROOMS
Our laboratories are no lab at all! Ours are only abodes for
rats and other rodents as they are not adequately equipped and maintained; the
laboratories in our citadels are best described as glorified yam barns having
cobwebs as designs. Our physics lab only houses rulers and rusted beam
balances; the chemistry labs in our prestigious towers are home to dry taps and
expired chemicals that were probably bought during the free education program
of the late sage- Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1955.
The classes in Nigerian universities are more or less a mechanic
or carpentry workshop where there are more damaged furniture than
good ones, our classes are neither conducive for teaching nor learning, with
little or no illumination.
As a student of Mathematics, I
had cause to meet with one of my lecturers on a problem on construction and he
said they do not have any material on it. This left me worried as i wondered
why as a department, there would not be a mathematics laboratory where students
could actually see the practicality of mathematics especially geometry where
they would be able to construct mathematical shapes, determine their features
and areas for themselves.
What ASUU is agitating for is
that they are tired of producing unemployable scientists and graduates in general-
their agitation is not only for themselves but for the students also as many
graduates of physics today could neither differentiate a potentiometer from a
galvanometer nor a shunt from a multiplier; we have graduates of Microbiology
today who find it extremely difficult to teach junior secondary school Basic
science at the same time, there are thousands of Mathematics graduate
certificate holders who are not conversant with the construction and bisection
of a line segment. All ASUU is saying is that the laboratories must be given
special attention.
RENDERING OF ASSISTANCE TO STATE
UNIVERSITIES
Can you please educate me on
what successive federal governments have done for the past 14 years in Aso
rock? One does not need to be a close relation of the vice chancellors and
registrar in universities especially the federal ones to get a glimpse of the
pressures they face by all and sundry because of admissions into federal
schools. It is not as if the lecturers in federal universities are more of a
genius than their counterparts in the state universities but because every
Nigerian especially the indigent ones prefer to study in a federal school
because of the low fees paid in the federal institutions.
In the Lagos state university
for instance, a students pay between N180 000 to N300 000 as fees whereas the
University of Lagos charges less than N45 000 for freshers and an average of N9000
for staylites.
Though the state governments are
also culpable in the decline in the standard and quality of education in the
country, the federal government must come to the aid of state owned
universities in other to ease the pressure on the federal universities and also
make education available to all.
Modiu Olaguro studies Education
and Mathematics at the University of Lagos; he wrote in through The Press Club,
UNILAG .
First Published: July 2013
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