ABIODUN NEJO
Former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Peter Okebukola,has urged governments and the private sector to dedicate their resources to the funding of education. This he said was necessary to alleviate challenges likely to debar the universities from attracting global recognition.
Okebukola said the low recognition being accorded the country’s universities globally was a function of poor funding by governments and corporate organizations.
The former NUC boss said that the university system would continue to encounter failure in Nigeria, until the menace of poor staffing and insecurity among others are dealt. He said it is only then that the country can rise to stardom in its higher education reform.
Okebukola also called for radical curricula reforms by NUC to promote the new ideal of entrepreneurial education that would make students self employable and relevant in the labour market.
He spoke on Wednesday in a paper entitled: “Can the Bones Rise Again? A Peep into the Revitalisation of the Nigerian University Reform”, which he delivered during the 23rd Convocation Lecture of Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti.
According to him, it is pathetic that Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) established by the Federal Government to give funding could only give financial supports to few universities. The consequence is that the others are left to develop at slow pace. A development he described as a serious impediment to the growth of universities in the country.
He said: “Nigerian universities are having a lot of challenges, but that of funding was the denominator. It has caused power supply to our universities, poor ICT network, low students’ enrollment and poor infrastructures.
“50 per cent of the institutions in Nigeria complained about epileptic power supply. Many of them rely on alternative power supply such as generating sets. This has resulted in gross increment in the cost of running universities.
“About 37.5 per cent of the institutions perceived the lack of support from the government through TETFund as a major setback in financing the development of infrastructure and they also complained of multiple taxation.”
He said the country must tackle the cankerworms of insurgency in the Northeast to make the institutions in the area safe for Nigerians.