2011: Politics of the Federal Government's New Universities

By Msonter Anzaa

The people of Nigeria are not new to summits. Summits are the language of government. Whenever there is a problem, government does not see or hear it, or at least it doesn’t seem to do so. Then when the problem is almost irredeemable, government would suddenly jump to its feet and call a summit. So I wasn’t actually surprised when in early October this year, the Federal Government called an education summit. It may be too early to express my skepticism about it including the approval for nine more federal universities, but if the summit is the same language government speaks, then I’m sure it’s nothing but one of those things.

Whatever was or was not discussed at the summit, is not the subject of this piece. This is Nigeria. We play politics with everything. If government is going to execute a project, there must be some political motives. We are aware that sometimes, out-going executives delay the execution of projects till the twilight of their tenures. Then they begin to point those uncompleted projects out as the reason they should be given a second or even a third term. Politics in Nigeria is hardly obout service. It is about the politicians and their interest. The public interest, if identified at all, is served only when, where and how it favors the greater private interest or guarantees a political point. Where no such benefits exist for the politicians, they exhibit an amazing luke warmness towards public interest. The motivation to work dies, but strangely, the motivation to hook and remain hooked unto power gets stronger.

Forget the digression. What I have said in another language is that this latest move by the Federal Government is more political than sincere. Elections time is here and the usual political cycle – politicians making promises they don’t intend to fulfill, has begun in earnest. Else, how long does it take a leader, a former University don for that matter, to know that something is wrong with his country’s educational system? Three years? One thing the Federal Government may not know is that it has not started anything new by calling a summit of whatever kind. The trouble with education in Ngeria is beyond the number of Universities. It is about commitment and a sustainable, long-term policy and vision. It is about funding. That’s how our Universities can fulfill their educational goals. We must talk both in terms of quality and quantity. To begin with, we can expand existing universities if more funds are released. We can improve the quality of our education by infrastructural and intellectual upgrading. This also requires funding and commitment. It is beyond somebody suddenly jumping from a trance and ordering nine or forty more universities that are also going to be neglected and allowed to decay in the long run. Universities that can’t graduate their students on time because of unending strikes – even if they are one hundred – can not save a struggling educational system. In fact, they will only finish it off.

Recently, a number of education – focused civil societies have been drumming loud that their presidential candidate in the 2011 elections must be education – friendly. Suddenly, an administration that was sleeping or may be was dead as far as education in Nigeria is concerned, has risen from death on the fourth day and is trying desperately to paint itself as education – friendly, for obvious political reasons. I want to state that if the latest move by the government in this sector is intended to blindfold and hoodwink stakeholders in the education sector that the Federal Government has education at heart and make them vote for president Goodluck Jonathan, in 2011, my personal opinion is that it has failed. Nigerian students may be poor and demobilized, but we are not fooled. Whatever agenda this administration might have had for education has died long ago and can not resurrect from death because the third day has already passed. The agenda died when from the on-set, the Federal Government failed to commit UNESCO’s 26 percent of the annual budget to education. The third day passed when this administration watched as ASUU closed universities for over three months, while the then Education Minister made a passive appeal for the strike to end in the interest of “our young ones” whom his ministry obviously did not care about.

As I write this piece, the statistics on education in this country are deteriorating in geometric progression. Less SSCE candidates are making five credits in the WASCE and even lesser numbers are making credit passes in English and Mathematics. All these happened when we had “Qualitative and functional education” as an agenda of the Federal Government. President Yar’Adua died, but has the Federal Government also died? In the tertiary sub-sector, lecture halls are over-crowded, laboratories and libraries are empty. Studying materials, where they exist, are archaic and the morale is poor, very poor. Every year, greater number of “our young ones” are unable to afford the opportunity to scavenge on the obviously rotten University system. All these problems were at the finger-tip of this administration even before it came to office. Yet it had to take it three years to call a summit and solve the number problem. It may probably take another three years to call a review summit and another three to call a white- paper committee that can handle the quality problem. The chain will likely continue until education militancy sets in. Then a government would come to power and declare general amnesty for the militants and everyone would go home, clapping.

The Federal Government may try hard as it can, but it can’t fool Nigerians twice. My people say a blind man does not let his food get burnt twice. If the first pot burns, the second one will at least be half-cooked. In this case, the devil we know, no matter how familiar, is not better than the angel we don’t know. And judgment day shall come, when poor men and women will hold their representatives accountable, and it will be the turn of the foolish servant to have his one coin taken away from him for poor handling.

Everything in Nigeria is politics and politics is everything. Whatever motives these might have been behind the Federal Governments new universities, it is difficult not to read political meaning into it. If the move is one of those campaign languages, I believe it has failed. And whatever any body may think or do, the search for an education-friendly presidential candidate in 2011 has not ended. In fact, it has only begun and Nigeria’s educational system, under God, shall defeat its enemies.