Stop licensing new universities, Oloja tells FG

Governments at all levels have been called upon to focus on better universities instead of establishing more that will not produce employable graduates in the public and private sectors.

President Bola Tinubu, through Sunday Dare, his special adviser on media and public communication, Monday approved provisional licenses for 11 private universities in Nigeria.

But Martins Oloja,.the former managing director/editor-in-chief, “The Guardian” Newspapers Limited, while delivering the 11th distinguished lecture of the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo City, in Ondo State on Thursday said he believed that better universities can produce excellent models and modules that can address our rickety development agenda in the country.

Read also: Full list: Tinubu approves licences for 11 new private universities

Oloja said; “So, that is why we need to turn to our local leaders in Nigeria to deepen their understanding of the essence of what we mean when we say they should understand that education and indeed quality education should be too important to play politics with.

“There is, therefore, no question about the fact that the time has come for our leaders to lay aside all weight and worries about insecurity that has produced so many crisis merchants and deal with the problems of the Nigerian University system.

“The entire university system in Nigeria needs a radical overhaul. There is therefore no doubt that we need better universities that will enable organizations to become deliberate and effective in learning, unlearning and relearning essential to progress.

“Nigerian University system with poor research funding and orientation has for some time now been producing the illiterate of the 21st century.”

Oloja, who spoke on a topic; “Can the universities trigger national development amid economic challenges”?, also called on elders who had enjoyed ‘the good old days’ in Nigeria when universities were universities, to support a motion that governments at all levels should stop all priority projects and declare genuine emergency on education with a view to investing in them consciously and sincerely.

According to him, “whether it is local or glocal”, the university should be equipped enough to play it’s primary role of turning the ordinary man to be what he wants to be.”

Speaking on the university autonomy and growth, Oloja, however, said; “when the university is autonomous, many schools simultaneously increase tuition fees, causing society to fear that it will increase the pressure on study costs on the shoulders of learners.

“Therefore, the State should not cut the budget of autonomous universities, but on the contrary, should increase budget support for schools that successfully implement the policy of university autonomy; considering them as worthy places to focus on investing to quickly improve the quality of training, helping the schools soon become essential national schools.”

The former Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, during the lecture also called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately direct his Education Minister to swallow his pride and vanity and resolve the ASUU-FG avoidable conflict now or never.

“It has become a symbol of suffering and shame to the federal and state governments. There should be a national summit on education administration and funding for development.

“The battle for restoring the lost glory in higher education in Nigeria must be waged holistically. To improve the standard of education and her global competitiveness, Nigeria must first educate the educators and improve their level of psychological satisfaction,” he said.