Dear Nigeria, can we leave our universities public or make them public/private?
Political changes have
compelled our Nigerian politicians to be ardent supporters of privatization. We
were slow to the party, but at least we are catching up. Then suddenly, we
started reversing the trend before it reached the universities. There was no appetite
anymore for privatizing public institutions. Apparently, the appetite is back;
this time, our ivory towers' heads are on the guillotine. It was just a matter
of time.
It is a well-established
belief that in the private sector, the customer is king. At the core of its
profit-making venture, private entities have great efficiency and better
customer service guarantee. In contrast, public institutions are more often
than not bogged down by political imperatives, inefficiency, and intermittent strikes.
In a fast-paced world where decisions are made, and goals are accomplished in
record time, can we afford to be unnecessarily held back by public institutions
to the detriment of our youths' future?
Until recently, as
recently as the beginning of the 20th century, universities have always been
private. So, there is little surprise that when we look closely at how
universities are set up and governed, we will see how they cherish and fiercely
protect their unique individualities and independence. In Nigeria, no two
public universities are the same. Forget that an organization by the name, The
National Universities Commission (NUC), has been around since 1962 to promote
quality higher education in Nigeria in a crisis-free university system. It's
just like The Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), created by
politicians to oversee agricultural institutions. Such advisory agencies or oversight
organizations are unnecessary at best and useless at worse. When we look at our
rank amongst the committee of nations concerning the
Human Development Index (HDI), we will see that the best way to close the wide
gap is by increasing access to higher education which in turn increases our
quality of life, job opportunities and overall socio-economic well-being. Virtually
all developed countries place a high premium on literacy not with words but by
allocating a lot of public funds into primary, secondary, and higher education school
systems.
As Nigerians appreciate
the need for our youths to be trained with an entrepreneurial mindset, we are
asking the universities to do more. With more responsibilities comes the need
for more funding in order to meet such expectations. The capacity is there but
not the infrastructure and certainly not the compensation commensurate with
such expectations. As the owner of federal universities, the government keeps
telling the administrators to adopt the best practices of the business sector,
get out there and hustle more to earn their keep. But is their keep actually
theirs to keep when they are hamstrung by unfavorable policies such as the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Here is a hypothetical
proposition: if Ahmadu Bello
University (ABU) Zaria decides to go and adopt the
University of Oxford model, how will the Federal Ministry of Education feel?
According to the University of Oxford, it is a public university since it
receives money from the government. It is also considered a private university
since it is entirely self-governing and relies very little on public funding.
With such independence that comes from being able to fund your tastes comes a
lot of power. Now, ABU Zaria can call a mother-of-all meeting involving all
stakeholders, such as alumni, students, members of staff, the host community,
and government officials at both local and national levels. Let's set up a
committee to chart a course that will lead to near-complete financial autonomy
from the government. Tuition fees will be introduced to cover the operating
expenses. To attain financial stability, an endowment fund will be set up, and
the utilization of such funds must be updated in the university's annual report
and accounts. A Board of Trustees comprising persons of integrity from outside
the University system will be charged with running the Endowment foundation.
Such funds will undoubtedly be free from the TSA shackles, and any individual
can generously make contributions without hassles.
Our good intentions may
never see the light of day as long there is no supreme body in the system that is
beyond reproach. At the peak of university, governance is the University
Governing Council. on the 10th of July 2003 the then President
Olusegun Obasanjo signed into law The Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions)
(Amendment) Act 2003, otherwise called the Universities Autonomy Act which spelt
out the requirement to be a council member:
"Persons
to be appointed to the Council shall be of proven integrity, knowledgeable and
familiar with the affairs and tradition of the University"
To sum up the Council's powers, we can safely say the
Council has the supreme powers to do anything. Since our focus is on university
financial autonomy, let's highlight why a brilliant council can take the
university to a whole new level. As part of the functions of the University
council, it can govern, manage and regulate the university's finances,
accounts, investments, property, business, etc., and appoint bankers and
solicitors to audit the university's account statements. A new governing
council with seasoned administrators cutting across the private and public sectors
can be tasked to deliver on clearly set-out goals as is obtainable in the
private sector. The government can have a seat in the Council but with little
say. Currently, the university has assets that are micromanaged, and when the
management of such investments is reviewed, they will be tailored to be revenue
generators. In addition, as the endowment fund hopefully grows, it shall be
utilized to support the education and research mission of the university in
perpetuity. Such growing funds can also allow the university to offer
scholarships and set tuition fees affordable by bright students from less
privileged backgrounds.
Of course, there will be
casualties. No more equal access to education for all, no more catchment areas,
and there will be less focus on undergraduate degrees. Scholarships will be
awarded to the best students across Nigeria and Africa. The university will be
repositioned by working very hard to meet the gold standards of education and
will be accredited by the NUC and other relevant international bodies. The buildings
and lands still belong to the government. There is no intention of buying it
off the hands of the government. We will maintain our status as a public
university and draw some government funding.
These aren't utopian
dreams and can be achieved when we rid ourselves of our heritage of hypocrisy.
We, Nigerians, are a very rare species of humans who enjoy self-deceit and
hypocrisy. That, itself, complicates our dilemma. Often, we know the right
thing but have difficulty saying and sticking to it sometimes for as mundane a
reason as not wanting to offend anyone. Sadly, we end up destroying generations.
Intellectuals aren't politicians, and when we make rational decisions after a well-organized
brainstorming session, we will be comfortable with the hard choices we make
without qualms. Nothing good comes easy!
Like Peter Knight, the
vice-chancellor of UCE Birmingham once said 'If the policy is that universities
are to be private bodies, then stop the micromanagement and treat them as such.
As the universities dangle uncomfortably in the void between the public and
private sectors, they get the disadvantages of both and the advantages of
neither. If only someone could make their mind up which it is to be and stick
to it.'
I am also tired and believe it's about time we take a new path to ensure we train the best minds and deliver the best research output that can solve our national problems. We also need measures to be implemented to ensure our students enter and leave the university quickly. Time is money and about time we learn how to save it. Someday, we will be truly autonomous. Amen
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