Universities around the world earn their reputations via robust academic and research output. Why are Nigerian universities falling behind in this regard?
According to the Vice-Chancellor, University of Abuja, Prof. Michael Adikwu, who spoke concerning this in a recent interview. In the early 1960s and 1970s, Nigerian universities competed favourably with their counterparts in Commonwealth countries, at least. Nowadays none is listed among the top 100 institutions in the world.
Too many factors are responsible. First, the system has been lacking a culture of research. Many Nigerian researchers are in research just for the sake of promotion. Only a few do research for the purpose of commercialization. Apart from that, Nigerians feel that anything done locally is inferior to what is imported.
Instead, they prefer to import raw materials and semi-finished products from overseas. Thus, our researchers do not have ready buyers. What I am simply talking about is that we need risk undertakers who can develop our research materials to see if they can compete favourably with what is produced elsewhere or those things that are already in the market.
Most researchers do not have the financial muscle to pull a product through the stage of laboratory to the pilot level and to the industrial stage. Similarly, we lack mega industries that can set aside huge sums of money to support research as it occurs elsewhere.
Then, our universities competed favourably with their counterparts for obvious reasons. You understand that most of our tertiary and other levels of education had quality teachers from other lands. At a point, the downturn in our economy made many of them to leave the country. The inter-ethnic and religious intolerance in the country also compounded the situation. They affected promotions and appointments in the universities.
Today, teachers outside their home areas are no longer comfortable. There are people of different nationalities in many American, Asian and European universities. Even among the students, there is a high level of heterogeneity. It is only in Nigeria institutions you find this type of homogeneity that has made me to refer to them as village institutions. This has affected research negatively to a large extent.
When most of the foreign lecturers and researchers left, multinational companies also underwent comparative advantage reversal. The companies that were manufacturing here in Nigeria took their manufacturing arms back home. What they do nowadays is that they merely market only their finished products here. With these, all the research needed is done by their parent companies located offshore.
However, Nigerian situation has not reached the point of hopelessness. The only thing is that our developmental efforts will be slow and painful. All that we need now is to have more universities; not just in terms of number but in carrying capacity.
Even in the advanced countries, there are schools that are not so good. The issue here is to educate as many Nigerians as possible and to increase the literacy level of this nation. In fact, I have been dreaming of a centre for creativity. It is not just about producing students, but students that are creative, innovative and disciplined to face the challenges of our nation.
That Nigerians send their children to Ghana does not mean that all is bad at home. Three basic factors may be responsible for this. The first one is the very narrow education space here at home. Every year, over a million Nigerian children from secondary schools sit for tertiary examinations into various strata of our tertiary schools. Less than half of them secure admission. Naturally, the rest must have to look beyond the shores of the nation.
The second factor is the issue of stable academic session. Many feel that their children will stay longer than necessary if they gain admission at home. The last factor can be attributed to pride or ego.
Nigerians have a habit of thinking that anything outside is better than what we have here. Remember that there are Ghanaians and other nationals who have their children here in Nigeria. The best thing that should be done is to assist private individuals who want to operate private schools (universities, polytechnics and colleges of education). This can be in the form of public-private-partnership. The government can assist them with some funds to help them acquire the necessary infrastructure and the lecturers needed. This, I believe, can help institutions with the requisite standards to establish well, he asserted.
