From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Prof. Shehu Abdullahi Zuru, is the Pro-chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurum, Delta State. Hd spoke with The Education Report and registered his discontent about the level of institutional decadence in FUPRE.
You were appointed few months ago as FUPRE Pro-Chancellor and Governing Council Chairman. What was your assessment of such critical national institution?
It was a bitter experience. In fact, I was disappointed at the level of institutional decay in the university. I was amazed at what I saw when I held my first Council meeting in the school shortly after resumption. What I saw in the university was discomfiting. It did not measure up for my expectation, maybe because I had high dreams being an insider and very conversant with issues in the oil and gas industry. I did my Masters Degree in oil and gas law, at the Center for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law, University of Dundee, Scotland, which is a global reference for the oil and gas research. In summary, the school was just a vantage tragedy of national development.
What was your real disappointment about the school?
In fact, I was not just disappointed but was profoundly dissatisfied.
Did you question the cause of the “shameful” status of the school?
There is no need for that. Besides, the school managers were not there from inception. It is better to interrogate the critical development partners in the education sector. As a pioneer university of petroleum resources in Nigeria, I was disappointed to know that Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), a critical development partner in oil and gas industry has no presence in the school. PTDF ought to have been deeply involved in the provision of infrastructures and other facilities that would aid learning and research in the University. I couldn’t fault the federal government either, for not being able to develop FUPRE, because no matter how determined they are, if development partners like PTDF could not be committed to the vision, then little progress would be recorded. My suggestion is for rejig of the entire development plan and establishment concept of the school. That is the way to progress and development otherwise, local skilled manpower in the industry will continue to elude us.
Could that be responsible for local manpower deficiency in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector?
Such position could be too ambitious. One could not really place squarely on shoulders of FUPRE, a young university that is barely a decade old, the responsibilities of bridging the wide gap in terms of technical representation in the oil and gas industries, either up or downstream. But it has a critical role to play which I think could be the development of its own curriculum. In doing that, emphasis should be on critical needs of the national economy. The curriculum should answer questions like, what aspect of oil and gas do we lacking local special skills and expertise, so that the curriculum could address it, in line with visions of the government. In every civilized world, universities are driven by research, and the academia for all intent and purposes, have a mandate to play a pivotal role in generating ideas that would advance the cause of national development.
Are you worried that Nigerian graduates are said to be unemployable?
Of course am worried. But the major problem of developing economy like ours is that most often than not, critical national policies are not purpose driven. Ideally, the pursuit of certificate ought to be different from knowledge acquisition. That could be the core grievances of employers of labour, that we have university graduates who, frankly speaking, could not provide the special skills required in the oil and gas sector.
I must confess that the grievances are not peculiar to oil and gas sector but cut across several other sectors. It is a national phenomenon and I had insisted that we would be nowhere near progress until we return to the drawing board, and possibly redefine what our priorities as a nation ought to be regarding education and knowledge acquisition. That is the only way out.
When you talk about going back to the drawing board, could that be possible without restructuring?
The only peculiarity of Nigeria is in terms of clear definition of national goals and priorities, and of course, our attitude to national policies. I don’t believe that the issue of restructuring has anything to do with the quality of education in Nigeria. Nigeria has made tremendous progress in terms of developing a platform that guarantees access to good and affordable education. Remember that when we operate regional government, we could only boast of four or five universities. But today, we have a handful of private and public universities doing amazing things. This is tremendous progress in the working life of a country like Nigeria. But we still need to lay more emphasis on quality rather than quantity. The shift globally is towards small governments, small but highly effective governments rather than over bloated government where everything goes.
What is your take on the new cut-off marks as recently announced by JAMB. Does it have any effect on the quality of our education and graduates?
JAMB ought to be a clearing house for admissions into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. If I am to rate JAMB for what it has done in every difficult and trying circumstances, I would say so far, so good. Before the establishment of JAMB, the universities had unbelievable latitude to decide who to admit and not to admit. Then, we had a situation where the quality assessment at the point of entry was bastardized. People with five credits gained admission into universities, people with three credits also gained admission into same universities, but JAMB has put a stop to it which is quite commendable. I don’t believe it was misadventure by JAMB on the new cut off marks. Institutions are at liberty to set a reserve bench mark for admissions into the limited available space. That JAMB announced benchmarks does not override the discretion of the universities to settle for the best qualified candidates. Public criticism of JAMB on the cut off marks was unfair. I was not surprise because Nigerians are very sensitive and suspicions of government policies, and we also have the tenacity for a robust national discourse on anything that we think is very critical to our national development.
Nigerians have criticized the 1999 Constitution, how do you think we could get people’s constitution that would secure our collective peace, progress and unity?
I must confess that the best constitution in the world is the one that strengthens national consensus. Constitutions are supposed to be sacred documents because they are basis for legal order. What is fundamental is its own sacrosanct nature and not a document that could be flip at slightest provocation. Constitution should be document that adapts to changing circumstance. Those who allude to the fact that the constitution was to blame for our national instabilities are being economical with the truth. National discussions should drive national consensus. Constitution of a country like Nigeria ought to be alive and functional. It shouldn’t be organic documents that cannot stand the test of time. A country like Nigeria needs a constitution that adapt to changing dynamics of national life. The instabilities in Nigeria shouldn’t be laid on the doorstep of the 1999 Constitution. People have argued that the constitution was forced on us by the military but why didn’t they challenge it before it was adopted. Remember that the preamble of the constitution reads thus ‘We the people of Nigeria.’ For that reason, anyone that has genuine objection should channel it through appropriate channel.
It seems lapses in the constitution have weakened the fight against corruption. How true is that?
I don’t see it that way. Which strategic components of the constitution procrastinated or weakened the momentum in the fight against corruption? The truth is that the functionality of any law lies directly in the mind and will of the institutions of justice. 1999 Constitution cannot be ‘cog in the wheel of progress’ within the context of crusade against corruption. Rather I would highlight that there are certain mandatory things we should have received more attention than they currently do. These fundamentals have a way of undermining the momentum in the fight against corruption. What fundamentals am I referring to? We must create a special court that would expedite trial of corruption cases. With the history of Nigerian judiciary so far, I don’t believe it represents, for all intent and purposes, a viable vehicle for accentuating the fight against corruption. The basis for my proposition is that we had issues in the past regarding judgments delivered by the judges in our courts. Just recently, some judges were arrested, investigated and prosecuted for alleged fraud. That was unprecedented in the history of judiciary in this country.
How do we shift our education system away from certificate base to knowledge acquisition?
The paradigm shift in our education system is long overdue. At every juncture in the life of a country, there is need to take a step back and adjust national priorities. For instance, if about 30 years ago there was an area of knowledge that was considered as a precursor to accelerated national development, attention should be shifted towards there. Then after 30 years, there would be re-evaluation of the successes and set another short and long term priorities on areas that would consolidate the success achieved previously. I believe if this was done periodically, it would have redefined the academic curriculum in Nigerian universities. And perhaps, that would have taken care of the deficits in terms of special knowledge and skill acquisition which would have properly positioned us and the various sectors of our economy to compete purely in a global market.