By Nelly Agwu
Former member, University of Lagos Governing Council, Prof. Boniface Oye-Adeniran, has blamed poor quality of education in the country on the proliferation of universities by the Federal Government.
Oye-Adeniran, retired professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who spoke during a television programme monitored in Lagos, yesterday, said it was wrong for government to issue licences to states, individuals and corporations who lacked the capacity to fund them. He specifically faulted the granting of licence to states mired in debt with no foreseeable time frame of repayment to establish a universities..
He lamented a situation where licences were issued as contract businesses executed anywhere in the country. He said government should stop establishing universities when they have not adequately funded existing ones.
Oye-Adeniran attributed the dwindling standard in quality of administration and teaching to this proliferation and suggest that a state should not have more than one university.
He lamented a situation where some of those who establish universities in Nigeria have their children schooling abroad. He said it should be mandatory for children of those who establish private universities to also be part of the school as this will enable the owners to put up the necessary infrastructure to boost quality learning in such schools. He said Federal Government should not be seen as being in competition with states, but should rather focus on setting up centres of excellence in every aspect of the economy in states.
He tasked the Federal Government to grant autonomy to universities to enable them source for their own funds.
Oye said universities should not just be for the poor but that both poor and rich should have access to university education. He was a member of UNILAG appointments and promotions board from 2014 to 2019 and National President, Nigerian Medical Association between 1993 and 1997.