Dan Agbese
versities, 48 state universities and 79 private universities for a total of 170 universities. An impressive figure that tells a false story of this vital sector of the right royal mess we continue to make of our educational development. And the president who set himself the task of cleaning the mess sees no contradiction as he strolls down the same garden path. It could only get much worse. Only last week, the Federal Executive Council approved 20 new applications for private universities. The mere piling up of these universities can at best ensure that our country remains a living paradox in modern development.
The Federal Executive Council held a special retreat on Education in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects, on November 3, 2017. I thought Buhari had brought cleaning the mess in this sector to the centre stage. He indicated that much in his address in which he pointed out that decades of neglect of the sector had forced the nation to contend with a high rate of illiteracy, perhaps the highest in Africa. With more than 13.2 million children out of school, and with the unrestrained ambition to produce certificated but not educated young men and women, anyone could see that Nigeria was in trouble and heading for greater trouble. Buhari noted, correctly, “education is our launch- pad to a more successful, more productive and more prosperous future. We must get education right in this country. To get it right means setting our education on the right path ( because the) security and stability of the country hinges on its ability to provide functional education to its citizens.”
I can see the broom but I cannot see the mess it has swept out here.
I see no evidence the president is anxious to get it right. He has gone on to set up new universities such as the army university, the air force university, transportation university and university of education that together cannot be said to be the first firm steps in getting our education right. At the retreat, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said that from “… from 1999 to date the annual budgetary allocation to education has always been between four per cent and ten per cent.” Compare that to UNESCO recommendation that developing countries such as ours should allocate 26 per cent of their annual budgets to education. It cannot be a matter of national pride that the giant of Africa cannot find the will to invest this much in its educational development. Adamu said that the Buhari administration needed to invest N1 trillion annually in the next four years to put its education right. Again, he president cannot find the will to do so. Is Goodluck Jonathan wearing a smirk on his face? I would not blame him.