A NATIONAL SHAME

By Moses Oludele Idowu

I am not happy this morning. That is to put it mildly. I should have said that I am sad.
I am sad about Nigeria and about her decaying institutions and where they are headed. This is what makes me sad this morning.
The result of Global Ranking of Universities has just been released. And what is the outcome? It is a shame. A national shame.

Of the over 274 universities that Nigeria parades only one made the list of the first 1000, called Band A universities.
Isn’t that sad? But it is not sad enough. What is sad is that even the only one university that made the list was neither a Federal or State university but a private one and a mission university for that matter. It got nothing from tax payers money or from public budget. That is the shame there.

Here is the result according to Professor Okebukola:

Of the first 1000 universities only Covenant University made the list, numbered among the rank of 801-1000 called Band A universities.

Next is the Band B universities (1001-1200). Only 4 universities made the list namely, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ibadan, Landmark University and University of Lagos.

Then the Band C universities:1201-1500. Only 6 universities made this band, two Federal universities of technology at Akure and Minna and Bayero university, Universities of Benin, Ilorin and Nsukka.

Next is the Band D: (1501-?): Only 10 made the list: 4 state Universities like LASU, EKSU, LAUTECH and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, and 7 Federal universities namely FUNAAB, FUTO, OAU, FUOYE, UNIPORT, UNILORIN, DANFODIYO, Sokoto.

All together 21 Nigerian universities made the list to be mentioned in the Global Ranking. Two of these made the best list in Band A and B. These are Covenant University and Landmark University owned by the same organ, a Christian mission agency headed by David Oyedepo.
Does this suggest something to you? Then wait for the real shock.

Of the remaining 19 universities in Bands B- D, 15 are Federal universities and the remaining 4 are State universities.

Here are the shocks:

No Federal or State university made the list of the first 1000 universities.
No private university made the list except Covenant and Landmark in the first two categories.

Of the 21 universities, 6 are in the North and 15 in the South. Of the 15 in the South, 10 are in the Southwest, 3 in the Southeast and 2 in the Southsouth. Of the 5 in the North 3 are in the Middle Belt North Central and the remaining two in the Northeast. Of the three in North Central two, Landmark and Unilorin are in the same state, Kwara State.
Of the first generation universities only Ife and Nsukka did not make the list of Band B like the others. Nsukka made C while Ife, Great Ife fell, to D.

What does this sum up to? What lessons can we learn from this?

With due respect to Professor Okebukola and others who see this result as impressive and worthy of celebration, I do not. I don’t see what is impressive here. In point of fact I see this as an emblem of national shame and a tragic dramatization in more vivid forms of the misgovernance and maladministration of the universities in particular and even of the Nigerian nation in general.
I am particularly sad that a private organization that has no access to public funds, tax payer’s money or subvention or alumni support base is posting a worthwhile results on two of her universities while a Federal university of the first generation like Ife cannot raise its head. Great Ife that was once known and respected globally has now become a Band D university outranked by even Landmark University that was established less than 10 years ago. I am particularly sad about Ife, Great Ife because I know what this university used to be in the days when Scholarship was the watchword of universities. It shows how Nigeria has mismanaged this great university in particular.

The proliferation of universities which has resulted in thinning and depletion of quality academic staff from older universities has led to decline of the university system in Nigeria. The senate just passed another bill turning a polytechnic in Ilaro to a full-fledged university. Soon another university will be established in Iragbiji to placate the new Hegemon. All these will lead to depletion of inadequate existing manpower. The trouble with Nigeria is we tend to overdo everything until we spoil the whole thing.
Why do we need 274 universities? Why not rather have 100 that are functional, properly- equipped, well- funded and fully staffed and adequately structured and monitored? Only 21 had a mention in the Global Ranking, what happened to the rest 253? They are missing in the Register of distinction of Global Ranking!

It is a thing of sorrow and shame that more money has come to Nigeria in the last 25 years of the Fourth Republic than at anytime in history; and it is sad that it is during this very period that Nigerian Federal and State universities have suffered the worst reverses, the most terrible decline, most persistent strikes by academic staff due to many reasons. It is this same period that qualitatively, Nigerian universities have been most underfunded, mismanaged and maladministered. With the situation of things in the economy and poverty coming on the generality the university system will even suffer the more and future rankings might even be worse. As lecturers reduce the number of times they go to work due to increased cost of fuel, output will generally decline. All things been equal.
Government is spending 96 billion naira to fund pilgrimages to Mecca but the universities, the engine rooms of National Thinking are crying for help and gasping for oxygen for survival.

Although funding is a major problem with our universities and partly responsible for this lacklustre performance, funding does not explain everything. I have said it before that funding is just one factor among many affecting our institutions. There are other systemic factors that I can’t fully go into here. The staffs of Covenant University and Landmark University are not better paid than Federal universities and State Universities. I am not sure they have a better condition of service. Yet their universities posted an impressive result. Does that tell you something?
State universities have been charging fees for long and they have resources yet only 4 of them made the list. Federal universities now charge students too for accomodation, and sundry levies running into hundreds of thousands per student, in addition to the Federal subvention however little it is. Yet has there been any improvement? Will there be any even with these?
So funding is a factor but underfunding does not explain everything about all the decay we see in the universities. Happily, ranking is not based on physical infrastructures but on the quality of intellectual output and mental exertions and capacity of the participating institutions. I can’t go into that now. It will be the subject of another day.

In the meantime I want to congratulate the World Mission Agency a. k.a Winners Chapel and his missioner Bishop David Oyedepo for this impressive result. Those of you who are always criticising the Church and pastors you now have somewhere else to direct your energies. At least the Church has posted a result for the money she collects and has shown herself a much more judicious manager of men and resources far better than your own government at the State and Federal levels and even your public institutions.
It is a shame. A national shame. I am sad this morning.

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