This article is provoked by the recent news report that the National Universities Commission (NUC) is currently processing about 303 new applications for the establishment of more private universities in the country. The Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, who revealed this at a two-day National Summit on Private Universities, stated that the applications were received from group of individuals, corporate and faith-based organizations across the country.
Currently, Nigeria has about 170 universities, made up of 43 owned by the Federal Government, 48 by State Governments and 79 by private individuals and organizations. 38 of the private universities are faith-based. While Christian Church groups owned 32, Islamic organizations owned 2.
The geo-political zones distribution of the private universities in the country shows that the South West leads with 36, South South 14, South East 13, North Central 11, North West 3, and North East 2. If you add, the number of illegal universities in the country, the figures will be higher than what is given here.
Available data shows that the number of candidates seeking university education through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in the country is between 1.7 and 1.8 million where there are about 500,000 vacancies in all the universities. What the figures from JAMB have shown is that there are more candidates pursuing the limited vacancies in the nation’s 170 universities.
This is why many people including religious bodies are rushing and scrambling to establish more private universities to fill the yawning gap created by absence of vacancies in the existing varsities. About 1,502,978 candidates sat for the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) out of 1,652,825 that registered for the examination.
For the 2019 UTME, over 1.6 million candidates were registered as at February 15. But the examination body was optimistic that the number will reach about 1.8 before the end of registration. With these statistics, there is no doubt that Nigeria actually needs more universities so that there will be more admission spaces for the growing army of prospective varsity students.
From the statistics, too, it appears the government (state and federal) cannot provide the number of universities that the nation needs now hence the private sector is filling the gap with great speed. While it is not in contention that we need more universities to curb the thriving higher education tourism to not only European and American universities but to the universities in Asia, Ghana, Togo, Republic of Benin and whatever, quality should not be sacrificed in the name of quantity.
The aphorism of ‘the more, the merrier’ must not apply here because we will soon be grappling with the problem of having glorified secondary schools all bearing the appellation of university. A friend of mine stunned me recently when he said that ‘the biggest business in town is school and church.’ Initially, I was very dismissive.
But he insisted that I should count the number of schools and churches in each street of the neighbourhood. It was there and then that it dawned on me that he had a point. The number is huge and many new ones are springing up. And why do private individuals and groups rush to establish universities instead of factories and farms where graduates of these institutions will work?
I can understand why some rich men and women in Europe and America establish universities. They do not do so in order to make profit. They may eventually make profit. But they want to give back to their society. But can we say exactly the same of some of our people that now rush to own one private university or the other? While I do not think so, I want my readers to volunteer answers to the posers in the spirit of dialogue on an important national issue.
It is a fact that government alone cannot provide the number of universities needed in the country right now. While the private sector is stepping in to fill the gap, it must be done with an eye on quality. Where are the lecturers that will teach in these universities? Definitely, they won’t come from abroad and they are not going to come from African countries either. They cannot come from Europe and America. Already, there is brain drain in the sector. Many of our varsity teachers are working abroad where the condition of service is very much better. And many of them are probably not willing to relocate to Naija so soon considering our bad and dirty politics and general insecurity. I will not talk of epileptic power supply, rising unemployment, crushing poverty, dilapidated road infrastructure, the argument over subsidy removal and the implementation date of the new minimum wage of N30,000, the fight over corruption and the rush for political appointments at the centre and state capitals.
To ensure quality and stem the tide of new requests for more private universities, the NUC must raise the bar and ensure that only those who are desirous to contribute to the nation’s higher education sector are allowed to establish new private universities. In doing so, the NUC must take note of the geo-political distribution of the institutions.
Individuals and groups should not just wake up to establish a university solely to make profit. The profit motive of some of our private universities will eventually kill quality. It will defeat the aim of establishing private universities. State governments should also wake up and fund their universities adequately. Some of the state universities are nothing to write home about in terms of quality and infrastructure. The Federal Government should also fund its universities and equip them properly.
Setting up private universities should not be seen as the latest business idea in town where investors can reap high returns on investments. While there is nothing wrong to establish school, church or hotel, let more attention be shifted to establishing agricultural farms, industries where the products of these universities will work.
All the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) do not have the capacity to give them jobs. The state governments also lack the capacity to give them jobs, too. Instead of the rush to establish varsities, churches and hotels, let there be equal rush to establish factories and industries across the country.