What Killed The Universities

by

Emmanuel Esiemokhai

The worst affront on education since our independence occurred during the Abacha military dictatorship. With regards to the universities, he (Abacha) appointed vice chancellors in his own image and likeness, thieving, scheming and practising wickedness. They encouraged cronyism and contractorism. They promoted scholars according to how useful to the vice chancellor the scholar was. Evidence abounds.

In my book titled "Awo is still relevant," I noted that the Ashby Commission's Report which was submitted to the Federal Government in September 1960, opened the floodgate for the establishment of universities in the 1960s and later all sorts of universities sprang up in the country. The older universities were well established.

The problem was not with the former but the later-day "universities." The former was of the highest standards but the latter-day ones need standardisation in many respects. Unfortunately however, those who were charged with the task of university management saw their commission as a moneymaking one. Their concern from the yawning evidence was how to gain from awarded contracts, peddle their influence and seek admission for some low flyers, refrain from acts in defence of the truth especially where this would jeopardise their standing in the estimation of those who would confer unearned advantages on them - the military.

With reference to council members, it is not that past appointees to council did not wear the resemblance of the nobility. The truth is that the laissez-faire attitude to national resources that has prevailed in the last 10 years gave vent to freeloading.

The university development plans were hardly of interest to them but what fell out from them was paramount. As a result, evidence of carcasses of mismanagement can be seen in unfinished buildings, grounded cars, deteriorated structures, empty laboratories, archaic libraries, dingy classrooms, unhealthy hostels, all glowing odes to misappropriation and mismanagement. One often wonders why nothing is being done to perpetrators of these crimes, whose signatures adorn the vouchers, the contract documents.

As a result of the state of the universities, many academics have left and have refused to return. Self-inflicted disabilities are gnawing at the ivory tower nation-wide. Something has happened to dedicated scholars, some who are in universities for the love of learning, teaching and knowledge. Some have left the Nigerian university system for other universities where they can carry on unhindered in their chosen careers.

With the poor facilities on ground, we can only ensure "a little learning" which Alexander Pope said "is a dangerous thing." He wrote that we should "drink deep or taste not the Peririan Spring. It shallow draughts intoxicate the brain and drinking restores us again."

If one listens to the University College of Ibadan graduates of the early 1960s and what now goes, the difference is clear. You can see what good facilities can do to the same species of home sapiens in the same nation.

The value of education cannot be quantified. It is inestimable. Yet, for many years now the colleges and universities in Nigeria were left to manage in unfavourable circumstances. Aided by the base human factor, and lacking in systematic provision, the degeneracy became accelerated.

Confused and confusing remedial policies proved unhelpful. So, the crisis deepened divergent interests, the activities of henchmen and hatchet technocrats including favour and fortune-seekers amassed disruptive factors that damaged the universities.

Painfully, any clear logical case made by those who work genuinely, within the system is regularly thwarted by birds of passage who perch on undigested policies and they often successfully pontificate inanities of inconsequential and transient import. So, the crisis deepened. Untested subjective views on education, voluntarism and wanton subversion of dialogue created problems for consensus building. Violent expressions of ideological invective becloud the issues. Unwarranted name-calling, continued suspicion of each other's motives increased, rather than extinguished the cauldron in higher institutions.

There is need for a new administrative structure for universities which will canalise duplicated efforts, temporise with yawning academic problems, remove money-making from the university psyche and restore the enthusiasms of those who enjoy teaching and learning. A lot of things that go on in many universities seem out of harmony with the purpose of universities.

The rudimentary functions of universities have been replaced by capricious and mundane pursuits. The government is investigating, we are told, the affairs of universities through setting up judicial commissions of inquiry or visitation panels to realistically study and probe the existing state of affairs. The insight the people will win from the exercise will be very revealing.

Ethnicity, group dynamics, contractorism, duplication of roles, intolerance, victimisation and other vices, which one would ordinarily not expect from a community of scholars are rampant.

"The university tradition, one of the richest and finest products of man's inventive genius" has become desecrated as a result of the prevailing ethos of "conditioning." Poor wages and allowances have weakened the pattern of intellectual life on university campuses in Nigeria. Seminars and symposia have become rare, apparently to prevent "vocal and militant students and intellectuals" from uttering critical comments. What is the university without robust academic exchanges? What is deplorable is the lacing of political dialogue with prejudice and selfish postulations instead of objectivity.

What killed the universities was the appointment of ruined souls who by their unique handicap were very manipulable. They introduced novel circumstances into university logic. A strange alliance between mediocre and scholars tolled the bell of the last days in the ivory towers.

However, there were those, who through share will power, put their progress on hold in the belief that "no condition is permanent."

No university can boast of a race of great educational thinkers if the culture of ethnic back scratching explains everything. The besetting weakness in a system that thrives on cronyism, ethnic considerations, group dynamics is that a lot of paper tigers terrorise loftier performers.

The value of education is immeasurable that is why all who have respect for knowledge and wisdom are agonising at the recent developments in the Nigerian university system and the cavalier manner in which such a serious issue was handled by those who should visit the Ambrosan library in Milan. The new policy must be pushed through. The right to education should be conferred on all citizens. It is a shame that most parents saw the prescribed ASSU-FGN disagreement as of no concern of theirs. Yet, they are the first to flock the universities seeking for miracles on how to get their children admitted to be taught by poorly paid academics. We are equally disappointed that "distinguished citizens" who smile broadly while receiving "honorary" doctorate degrees were also unconcerned.

Education is everybody's right. Sooner or later, everyone has a need for enlightenment at university level. The struggle for a viable university system is everyman's .

Government should review university teachers' salaries and fund the universities as much as possible. Only the best is good enough for Nigeria. More Olympic and Nobel prizes can only come when educational enlightenment is prized as gold.

The new governing councils may wish to interact more with academics, students and administrators. Occasional meetings and dialogue in the open will offer useful information.

There is no gainsaying that the academia was down-graded during the Abacha regime. It still is. So, there is need to reconcile those who suffered during the Abacha era and those they unjustly treated through apologies, repentance, restitution and reconciliation so that peace will return to our campuses.

Dr. Emmanuel Esiemokhai is the chief legal consultant to the Senate president.