The recent protest by some Ile-Ife indigenes for the appointment of Rufus Adedoyin, a professor of physiotherapy, as the 12th vice-chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife, was the culmination of the ethnic and religious hegemonic pattern that started four decades ago, even as the quality of education in the country slipped, BusinessDay investigations have shown.
The indigenes had protested against the appointment of Adebayo Bamire, a professor of agriculture, as the substantive vice-chancellor of the university, after the tenure of Prof. Eyitayo Ogunbodede.
BusinessDay findings show that the protest was merely a culmination of years of deterioration as federal universities became centres for the promotion of ethnic, religious, and regional agendas, rather than the projection of learning and sharing of ideas, and diversity.
In the same OAU, all the current principal officers are from the western part of the country, of Yoruba origin: Ogunbodede, the VC; M.O. Babalola, the deputy VC for academics; O.M.A. Daramola, the deputy VC (administration); M.I. Omosule, registrar; F. Z. Oguntuase, librarian; and S. O. Ayansina, bursar.
Michael Ukonu, a senior lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in Enugu State, noted that “the ugly development” had its context in the country’s political evolution.
“Since Independence, Nigeria has gravitated towards religion and ethnicity. And the education system is not divorced from politics,” he said. “The education sector suffers from the other ugly scenarios bedevilling the country.
And this is so, because education is directly connected to the development of a nation; hence, it is very easy for people to make connections with the education fraternity.”
Ukonu argued that if other things were right in the country, who controls the university would not be a problem.
He said, “The problem is that most political umpires use their offices to direct resources and dividends of democracy towards religious and ethnic inclinations, hence, benefiting some specific zones both at the federal, state and local government levels at the expense of others, thereby creating the impression that that is how things should be.
“The systematic scenario to sideline people from the system brings about the agitations we see in various federal universities. They are not agitating because their person has the capacity to do better but for inclusiveness in the system.”
Currently, there is no Nigerian university in the top 1,000 of global universities. According to the latest data from the ranking web of universities, the highest ranking of a Nigerian university, (which is the University of Ibadan) is 1,231st.
Stakeholders have decried the frequent strikes in Nigerian universities. The academic staff of Nigeria’s public universities under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are on strike again.
The strike, which started in February, according to Prof. Victor Osodoke, president of the ASUU, followed the inability of the federal government and university teachers to reach a consensus.
Read also: ASUU: Nigeria set for longest pre-election strike
For Charles Onwunali, a senior lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, the inability of any Nigerian university to be among the first 1,000 in the global university ranking cannot necessarily be ascribed to the slip in the quality of teaching and learning in Nigeria universities.
“If it is about the slip in quality of teaching and learning in Nigeria, how come students from Nigerian universities are found to be doing well in foreign tertiary institutions?” he asked.
According to Onwunali, the problem is that the government is turning the university system to the ministry of education where the vice-chancellor is made the chief executive officer.
“There are more non-teaching staff than the teaching staff in many Nigerian universities. Besides, the recruitment process is one key problem, a system where recruitment is built on ‘man-know-man.’ Quality of teaching is not declining, but the moral of those learning because things are not being done the right way,” he said.
However, BusinessDay investigations show that the long history of downing tools to protest varied actions and inactions of government by university teachers is parallel to the promotion of ethnic, religious and regional agendas in universities.
It was found that the quality of education and learning started slipping about the same time that Nigerian universities and government started to focus on their polarisation rather than the quality of their output.
A recent KPMG study, titled ‘The future of higher education in a disruptive world,’ showed that demographic changes, increased consumerism, technology and personalised learning were disrupting universities and the way they offer services.
According to experts, while many global universities are responding to these changes, some of which are irreversible, Nigerian students are confronted by poor quality teaching and learning, accentuated by ASUU strikes as well as regional, ethnic, and religious hegemonies.
