Revamped education will revive Nigeria, says Babalakin

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, University of Lagos (UNILAG) Governing Council, Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN), has called for the reformation of the education sector. This, he said, would improve all sectors of the economy.
Speaking at a retreat organised by the Osun State University in Ede, Osun State,
Babalakin said: “Nigeria is at a crossroad and I believe very strongly
that the emancipation of our great country will be led by the
reformation of the education sector. Once we get the education system
on the proper footing, it will propel the other sectors of the nation
and begin an unstoppable forward movement.
“It is very unfortunate that a country with a population of about 150
million persons and the largest country in the whole of Africa has no
tertiary institution that has any favourable rating in the world.
Various rating agencies have placed the most outstanding Nigerian
university at No. 800 or below in world ranking. It is acutely hurtful
that even in African, no Nigerian university is rated amongst the top
20. More saddening is that once upon a time, Nigeria had universities
that were highly rated in the world. I recall watching a television
programme some time ago where Pro. Olu Akinkugbe, an outstanding
academic and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin and
Ahmadu Bello University, stated that at a point in time, the
University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, was rated as the fourth amongst
medical institutions in the Commonwealth. The significance of this is
more appreciated when we realize that Commonwealth countries included
the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India, Pakistan
and Malaysia. And so ladies and gentlemen, what happened?”
Highlighting the issues affecting the education sector, Babalakin
stressed that: “The first is how dowe fund the tertiary education system? A
plethora of universities have sprung up in recent times. The Federal
Government has created a number of universities. Almost all the states
in Nigeria have their own universities. Many private concerns have
also established universities. In setting up these universities, I
hope that these various bodies have a fair idea of the cost of running
them. According to the Academic Staff Union of Univerities (ASUU)
quoting a National Universities Council (NUC) source, the average cost
of achieving full accreditation for universities’ programmes in
Nigeria is $3,000 that is today above N1 million. In effect, a
university with a population of, for example, 5000 students should
have N1m x 5000, that is N5 billion as its resource base for running
the university.  Based on this calculation, it is certain that most of
the universities in Nigeria are not well funded. More disturbing is
the fact that it is very doubtful if the proprietors of these
universities have the capacity to fund them even if they were willing
to do so. We have to, as a matter of urgency, stop creating
institutions that we do not have the ability to provide for.”
According to him, “universities must be funded from public and private sources.
Government alone cannot fund all the expenses of creating a first rate university.
Universities cannot depend entirely on the resources of the Federal and state governments.
All stakeholders in the education sector must harness their intellectual and other resources to create sufficient funding for tertiary education.
“In order to make a university achieve the standards we seek, greater
vitality must be introduced into the management of the university.
Within the Nigerian laws today, majority of council members in the
university are internal members, that is members chosen from within
the academic personnel of  the University.  This act of grace from the
Federal Government and some other proprietors of universities must be
complemented by a high degree of discipline and responsibility from
the internal council members. The university administration, as a
citadel of learning, must reflect truthfulness, scholarship and
fairness in all its dealings. It cannot be a place where there are
divisions based on ethnicity or governed by cartels.
“In order to propel the universities properly, we have to set key performance indicators that are consistent with international best practices that must be aspired to by all universities. It will amongst other things assess the contribution of the University to the larger society. It will rate the universities using the appropriate criteria which include student/staff ratio. Funding capacity of the university, its ability to attract research grants and the contributions of its members at large. When all these are introduced into our university system, then we would have begun the process of transforming our tertiary education system in Nigeria.”
UNIOSUN’s Pro-Chancellor, Malam Yusuf Alli, said any serious
university must be ICT-driven because the current demand of the global
community in imparting knowledge has moved greatly into the realm of information technology.