If you thought the mess in Nigeria’s public universities, particularly the disrupted academic calendar, was a joke or a bad dream, you must reconsider that perception. In the past few decades, university education has gone from bad to decrepit and probably would reach that unthinkable stage in which there would be no public universities anymore.

The future of public universities in Nigeria is grave. Consider the current scenario. Honourable and dishonourable politicians are lining up to pick nomination forms to contest the presidential primaries in their various political parties. The competition for the presidential post is now an all-comers affair. Every politician with exaggerated assessment of their qualities has announced their interest in the presidential race, including those who are not registered members of any political party. The rush for gold at the Presidency has overtaken every other national activity.

All these are happening in an environment in which public universities have remained shut and dormant for a prolonged period. This says a lot about the value politicians place on university education.

How can election rhetoric dominate our national discourse while there is no teaching or learning or research in public universities? How significant is university education to the Federal Government? How can the Minister of Education and the Minister of Labour and Employment sleep soundly every night while their ministries have failed to resolve lingering industrial relations disputes between government and university academic and non-academic staff? Whose responsibility is it to ensure that undergraduate and postgraduate students undertake uninterrupted programme of studies in public universities?

The idea that political campaigns are taking place feverishly and eagerly in a dislocated educational setting is a statement on how close or how far the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the government are from resolving the long-drawn-out dispute. By allowing the dispute to worsen, the government has shown it is insensitive to university education, the welfare of academic and non-academic staff, and the critical teaching and learning needs of students.

Failure to resolve the disagreement with ASUU is a failure of governance. Unsurprisingly, in a situation in which political leaders are clueless or have no idea what university education is all about, it is easy to understand why the government is indifferent to prolonged closure of public universities. We are in a country in which metaphorically blind political leaders are directing the affairs of many citizens with full sight.

Nigerian leaders have shamelessly sold off the nation’s soul and conscience. Nothing affects them anymore. University education is of no value to them even though many of them were trained in universities at home and overseas.

I had the privilege to undertake my undergraduate and postgraduate university education at the University of Lagos in the early to mid-1980s. When I compare the quality of education at that time and today, including the facilities, the library resources, the standard of accommodation in the hostels, the quality of food we were served, and other resources that were available to us, I cannot find any basis for comparison.

Public universities today are a disgrace. Basic hygiene is hardly observed in the same way that healthcare is non-existent. The Nigerian state has exposed undergraduate and postgraduate students to conditions that are unfit for animals to be raised. The hostels are better imagined than described. They are rotten and unfit to house students. What we accessed freely four decades ago as undergraduate students have become luxuries that are not available to students today.

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The rush for presidential nomination forms has turned hilarious. No one cares anymore about public universities. It is sickening to see politicians grabbing presidential nomination forms frenetically at their party head offices. You would be mistaken to think that the nomination forms are life jackets that politicians are keen to clutch in order to remain afloat in turbulent high seas.

In more organised societies, the dominant topic of discussion would be how to restore stability in the university system. Politicians aspiring to become the next President would be questioned about their higher education policy, how they plan to re-establish high standards in universities, and what they would do to restore public confidence in the universities. These goals cannot be attained now because presidential aspirants are not normal, and the government has shown no commitment to address the issues that have kept universities shut.

Nigeria is moving precariously and unwaveringly toward a calamitous end. Truth is bitter but truth we must accept. The geographic entity known as Nigeria is rapidly approaching implosion. Currently, nothing works. Everyone is working hard to destabilise the country, to steal as much money as they can, to destroy the system of law and order, the economy, the education system, the government, and everything else that makes other countries great.

The exasperating conflict between academic and non-academic staff of universities and the Federal Government has persisted. When negotiations between government officials and union leaders fail to resolve protracted disagreements, it is almost always because of ego. Some negotiators wear their ego on their shirt sleeves. At every meeting, you will hear them argue forcefully that it is either their way or no other way. They have a one-track mind. They are linear in their thinking. They are inflexible, extreme, unyielding, stubborn, rigid or uncompromising. In this atmosphere, the interests of university students and their parents become affected badly.

Effective political leadership is not about having unnecessary fist fights with ordinary citizens or union leaders. It is not about showing off the power of the state. So far, in the lingering tension between government and university teachers, both sides have reached that proverbial point of no return. Going forward is not possible. Going backward is not an option. In that state of ennui, nothing moves. Progress becomes a major challenge. 

Public universities are facing serious threats to their existence owing to endless strikes. In the current climate, there are two options that are available to the two sides. The first is to subjugate the pursuit of narrow-minded interests. The second option is to reflect critically on what has been achieved, the opportunities that have slipped away, and explore pathways to resuscitating an education system that has haemorrhaged for far too long.

Consider this utterly disgraceful experience. Nearly two years ago, ASUU abandoned teaching and other academic activities for about nine months. When you deduct nine months from a full calendar of 12 months, what you get is three months that academic activities are expected to take place. No purpose was achieved because the issues that led to that strike two years ago are still unresolved today. The losers then and now remain undergraduate and postgraduate students whose academic development was effectively messed up.

Nigeria now wears the face of a country deeply at war with its own people. Everyone is alarmed but no one is concerned or willing to act to address the core issues. It is this gross state of anarchy that the Punch captured majestically in an editorial published on Wednesday, December 1, 2021. The Punch wrote: “Nigeria faces an existential threat. Centrifugal forces, long suppressed, are tearing it apart. Mutual trust among the component nationalities has broken down and the unitary administrative and political format imposed on a natural federation has failed beyond repair. The economy is unproductive while insecurity has reached unprecedented level. Unless the country is restructured into a proper federation, collapse is inevitable.”

I end with a question about the challenges and opportunities that face universities: What is the future of public universities in Nigeria?