Readers' Comments on Educational Feats Of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food For Thought

Reactions to my 3-series article on the "Educational Feats of Nigeria in Diaspora" are not going away. The issues discussed in the article were challenges on Nigerian educational system. The reactions show  the sensitivity of education in the mind of Nigerians. The system has a sarcastic outcome and this was satirically captured by one of respected elites as reported in a social media. He was quoted saying  "Nigerian educational system has surprising outcomes. The smartest students pass with First Class and get admitted to Medical and Engineering Schools. The Second Class students get MBAs and LLBs to manage the First Class students. The Third Class students enter politics and rule both the First and Second Class students. The Failures enter the Underworld of crime and control the politicians and businesses. And best of all, those who did not attend school become Prophets and Imams and everyone follows them. What a paradox of life. This can only happen in Nigeria where corruption is the order of the day." Well, well, this is why I think no time or space is too much for us to deliberate on our educational system. The discussion may give us lessons, direction and perhaps, may lead us to find the solutions to the decay of the system. Happy reading

Educational Feats of Nigeria in Diaspora: Food for Thoughts

Dear Dr. Othman,

Thanks for your article published on Friday, 17th June, 2016. the article is timely and very relevant to the current deterioration of the educational situation in the country. The situation requires present administration to create favorable learning environment by providing modern learning facilities, good motivation and right leadership in our institutions (primary, secondary and tertiary). Kudos to Governor of Kaduna State Malam El-rufai towards this direction. We heard him sending thirty female students to study medicine in Uganda and recently planning to send one hundred and fifty male students to study medicine and other science courses in Cuba and Germany. That is an example of right and good leadership.

 Engr. Adamu Arab, Ph.D Fellow and Extension Specialist, NAERLS, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Dear M. K. Othman

Thanks for your highly informative article on the  "Educational Feats of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food for Thoughts" published in Leadership Friday. To buttress the problems you highlighted in the 3-series article, I have come across the global ranking of university and it  so  sad that no Nigerian University or higher institutions of learning made it in the list of 2016 top 1000 Universities in the World. This is the result of near total collapse of the Nigerian education system.  Permit me to share this information released by Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR).

The CWUR has released its 2016 Top 1000 Universities in the world and placed Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in the United States, in the top three positions, respectively. The University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, both in United Kingdom, came 4th and 5th respectively, as University of Witwatersand, South Africa (176th) ranked first in Africa. Others were University of Cape Town (265th), Stellenbosch University (329th), University of KwaZulu-Natal (468th) and the University of Pretoria (697th), all in South Africa, and Makerere University in Uganda also clinched the 846th position in the ranking. Four Egyptian Universities also represented Africa on the list, they are: Cairo University (771st), Ain Shams University (960th), Mansoura University (985th), and Alexandria University (995th). According to CWUR website, there are eight objective and robust indicators to rank the world’s top 1000 universities. The indicators are:

1. Quality of Education: measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals relative to the university’s size (25%)

2. Alumni Employment, measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have held CEO positions at the world’s top companies relative to the university’s size (25%)

3. Quality of Faculty, measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals (25%)

4. Publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in reputable journals (5%)

5. Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals (5%)

6. Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research papers (5%)

7. Broad Impact, measured by the university’s h-index (5%)

8. Patents, measured by the number of international patent filings (5%)

As Nigerians,  we must wake up and accord the university education the attention and actions it deserves. This is a clarion call to all the stakeholders to do the needful

Prof. C. K. Daudu, ABU Zaria

Dear M. K. Othman

I have read through your Leadership Friday Column - Breakthrough - of June 17 through to July 1, which featured the Educational Feats Of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food For Thought series. I am sure the readers of your column would have found them very exciting, refreshing and even inspiring for young readers especially high-leavers, undergrads and  other students in our higher institutions of learning.
You have also tried making a review of some of the factors weighing heavily against our general educational development but specifically the problems with higher education in Nigeria, some of which were thoroughly dissected in the Needs Assessment document.

It's heart-warming to note that there are people like you out there spreading the gospel. This is because the future of higher education in our country is certainly most dependent on the amount of healthy interest generated amongst, and shown to it by, the public, a task which the Academic Staff Union of Universities had been undertaking through all means at its command. This includes, sadly, when it's has to, by resorting to industrial actions, to brutally and painfully drive home the message. I dare say here, that without the decades long struggles of the Academic community there wouldn't have been any public university system functional in the country!

Keep up the good work! With regards,

Almustapha, L. (PhD)

Industrial actions, strikes, these are words many of us don't like hearing but they are "necessary evils", without them (decades of long struggle), the public universities in Nigeria would have been history. One unique characteristics of ASUU struggle is that, ASUU gives enough time, chance and warning to government to respond before embarking on the industrial action. In fact, all avenues to avoid industrial actions have to be exhausted before ASUU embarks on strike as the last resort. For instance, this year, 2016, ASUU has been calling on government to act on the myriad of issues concerning FGN-ASUU 2009 agreement and 2013 MoU without much success. The last call came through a Press Conference on 18th July, 2016 at Labour House, Abuja. In  the document presented at the Press Conference, ASUU itemized the issues concerning FGN-ASUU 2009 agreement, 2013 MoU and actions to avert industrial crisis in the university system.   ASUU stated "Comrades and compatriots, our Union is seriously worried about number of issues emanating from 2009 Agreement and subsequently, the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding with Federal Government, which remained unaddressed". The issues raised were germane but top among them were "Earned Academic Allowances and Funding of universities". On the Earned Academic Allowances, the amount required to address the issue is approximately N128 billion and government has not made additional payment after the initial amount of N30 billion made in 2013 against the pledge to pay up before 2015. On funding, ASUU asserted "all Nigerian universities are in a state of serious funding crisis, which is becoming worse by the day.....although, the Federal government promised to implement the MoU and will increase the budgetary allocation progressively towards 26% as recommended by UNESCO, this promise has not been translated into action. Rather, budgetary allocation to education dropped from 12% to 11% and 8% in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively".

It is apparent that the Federal Government is in tight corner on the way to address these challenges. It is an open secret that Nigeria is in economic recession with dwindling income from sales of crude oil, the mainstay of the economy. The price oil has drastically reduced at the international market. Similarly, The Nigerian oil production has reduced compared to what Nigeria was producing a year ago. However, there is a great chance to avert the looming crisis. As a matter of urgency, President Muhammadu Buhari can invite ASUU to a meeting for a way forward. ASUU leadership, being the intellectuals of our society can certainly understand Nigerian precarious  economic and political situations; and can proffer solution. All the past three Nigerian Presidents met with ASUU at different times when ASUU was already on strike and there was a stalemate with negotiating team. That was how the strikes were suspended but we don't have to wait for the strike to resume, it will be expensive for the system. It is better to act now than latter.

M. K. Othman   

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