Thread by @HisKnowledgeabl

THREAD: WAY OUT OF NIGERIA'S BROKEN UNIVERSITY SYSTEM, FG/ASUU IPISS LOGJAM, ETC

ATT: @MBuhari @ProfOsinbajo @DrAhmadLawan @femigbaja @NGRSenate @HouseNGR @GarShehu @FemAdesina @fkeyamo @atiku @PeterObi @GEJonathan @DrJoeAbah @AbdulMahmud01 @DemolaRewaju @segalink @RealSolaKuti

https://twitter.com/PremiumTimesng/status/1225840590203555842

2/ Nigeria's Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), are currently at loggerheads with the Federal Government of @MBuhari, over a frivolous payment system, the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

3/ As far-sited and jobless as Nigeria's Federal Government, in 2020, it still pokes its nose into how staffs of public universities are paid? This is RIDICULOUS!

4/ In 2020, Nigeria's Federal Government was threatened by @ASUUNGR that if it failed to pay its members January salaries for refusing to enroll onto the IPPIS, its members will down tools across Nigeria's over 43 Federal Universities. WHAT ARRANT NONSENSE!

5/ This form of threat by @ASUUNGR can be curbed, in a #RestructuredNigeria, where Higher Education is only REGULATED but not CONTROLLED by FG. I agree with ASUU, the university system shouldn't be regarded as a CIVIL SERVICE system where FG exerts control and ownership.

6/ In a #RestructuredNigeria, @ASUUNGR would see every meaningful reasons to key into the IPPIS system, even before gaining employment into the school system, as government is closer to them, in terms of quality added and monitoring. Me thinks IPPIS is only an anti-graft tool.

7/ Before we delve into WAYS OUT of these logjams, a peep into the history of university education in Nigeria is traced to the Elliot Commission of 1943, which led to the establishment of University College Ibadan (UCI) in 1948. UCI was an affiliate of the University of London.

8/ With teething problems that rocked UCI, Ibadan, Nigeria's Federal Government, in April 1959, enpanneled a commission chaired by Sir Eric Ashby, Master of Clare College, Cambridge, to advise it on the post-secondary and higher education needs of Nigeria for its FIRST 20 Years.

9/ Before the the Ashby Commission could say Jack Robbinson, in 1960, the Eastern Regional Government had formally opened the University of Nigeria (UNN), in Nsukka, Enugu State.

10/ In 1962, the Western Regional Government, implementing the recommendations of Ashby Report, established the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Osun State (now Obafemi Awolowo University).

11/ The Northern Regional Government, followed suit, establishing the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, in 1962.

12/ The Federal Government, same 1962, established the University of Lagos, at Akoka, Lagos State. Same 1962, the Federal Government made the UCI, Ibadan, Oyo State, a full-fledged university, making UCI, Ibadan and UNILAG, Lagos, the first two federal universities in Nigeria.

13/ In 1970, the newly created Midwestern Regional Government established the University of Benin (UNIBEN), in today's Edo State. 

It is instructive to note that six 1ST GENERATION universities were established between 1960 and 1970.

14/ In what it termed the Third National Development Plan (1975 -1980), the Nigerian Military Government established seven 2ND GENERATION UNIVERSITIES, as well as TAKING OVER control and ownership of  the four existing regional universities in 1975- UNN, OAU, ABU & UNIBEN.

15/ The new 7 varsities established by the Nigerian Military Government at this time were University of Calabar (UNICAL), Cross River State; University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Kwara State and University of Jos (UNIJOS), Plateau State.

16/ Others were University of Sokoto, Sokoto State (now Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto); University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Maiduguri, Borno State; University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Rivers State and Ado Bayero University (BUK), in Kano State.

17/ FG & several State Governments established what is today known as the 3RD GENERATION UNIVERSITIES between 1980 and early 1990s. Also, the 4TH GENERATION UNIVERSITIES were established between 1991 and present. Since 1991, there have been the establishment of more varsities.

18/ Then came Nigeria's first private university, the Igbinedion University (IUO), Okada, Edo State, in 1999. It was founded by Sir Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion (CFR), a billionaire, philanthropist and a prominent Benin Chief. He's father of former Edo Governor, Lucky Igbenedion.

19/ At the last count, a total of over 170 universities are ACCREDITED by Nigeria's universities regulatory body, the National Universities Commission (NUC)- 43 Federal Universities, 48 State Universities, and 79 Private Universities. That is more access to university education.

20/ WAY FORWARD FOR NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Since 1960 till date, it's no doubt an academic exercise to say Nigeria has not made remarkable successes through the establishment of universities. Could Nigeria have done more? YES.

21/ - Against, the backdrop of the dwindling quality of higher education in Nigeria, thus, the age-long logjams between FG & Staff Unions, I advise @MBuhari led FG
to lay a FOUNDATION for FG to HANDS-OFF the ownership and control of Federal Universities, Polys and CoEs.

22/ - FG should only exert ownership and control of military service academies such as the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), staff colleges, and several other monotechnics. This is what obtains within the U.S. higher education system.

23/ - Making Nigeria's higher education what it was in its hey days, when foreign nationals from other African nations, Europe, Asia and the Americas came to Nigeria for higher education is no ROCKET SCIENCE. FG only needs to DECENTRALISE Nigeria's higher education system.

24/ - The ownership and control of Universities, Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education should never be the responsibility of the Federal Government. Higher Education should never be in the Exclusive Legislative List of Nigeria's 1999 Constitution.

25/ -FG's Ownership Control of Higher Academic Institutions, is bedeviled with BUREAUCRACIES & BOTTLENECKS. Nigeria's Minister of Education, a Visitor to these Federal Institutions, with office in Abuja, is not an OMNIPRESENT, OMNISCIENT being to know their day-to-day operations.

26/ - Nigeria's CENTRIFUGAL higher education system is the root cause of most abandoned projects littered across these institutions. No thanks to ABUJA BOTTLENECKS. Abuja, I repeat is too far and cozy to know or have a feel of what goes on across these higher institutions.

27/ FG should stop behaving like Pharisees & Sadducees, who're HYPOCRITES. They lock the door of Nigeria's Greatness, Prosperity to the faces of Nigerians. They don't want to go into the drawing board to FIX Nigeria's chronic problems, neither do they allow solutions from others.

28/ Jesus was right in MATTHEW 23:13, when he said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."

29/ Rather than own and control Nigeria's university system, FG can offer federal grants, & any institution that receives such federal funds must certify that it has adopted and implemented a drug prevention program or any other programmes that meets federal regulations & needs.

30/ Rather than poking its nose into Nigeria's university system, given the cost of higher education, world over, FG can often help fund world-class research, academic instruction, and state-of-the-art athletic facilities across public higher institutions of learning.

31/ To further cut cost, burden of higher education on parents and their children, FG should set up financial aid schemes, grants & other scholarship schemes.FG need not bother itself on funding varsities, et al, through subventions. That methodology has FAILED since the 1980s.

32/ Public higher institutions in Nigeria have become so eroded and broken, that they no longer think out of the box for funding. They all behave like their lives depend on and end with the monthly allocations from Abuja. No allocation from Abuja, these institutions are SHUTDOWN.

33/ FG is too far-sited from these public higher institutions. I advise that public higher institutions in Nigeria should be controlled by State Governments, as they are closer. The States can better manage these institutions that FG.

34/ Weed Higher Education from Exclusive Legislative List. Like the U.S., these institutions can also be funded through: 

- Federal grants, contracts specifically allocated to build world-class research & development, academic instruction, & state-of-the-art athletic facilities.

35/ They can be funded via:

- an established Federal Financial Aid to undergraduates & graduates students, payable before or after graduation without breaking necks.

- State Governments subventions

- An established State Governments' Financial Aid Schemes.

36/ They can also be funded via:

- Compulsory Private grants from indigenous and foreign coporate organisations in Nigeria.

- Compulsory tax regime on corporate orgs , e.g., TETFUND should continue.

- Affordable tuition payments from students 

- Gains on endowment assets.

37/ Like their counterparts in the U.S., Nigerian public higher institutions can also be funded via established profit-oriented services they render to communities within and outside Nigeria. E.g., Agriculture, Engineering, Medicine, etc. That's why they are called IVORY TOWERS.

38/ The above-mentioned solutions to fixing Nigeria's broken public higher education system is possible only in a RESTRUCTURED Nigeria, where excess power no longer rests at the centre. A Nigeria free from HIGHFALUTIN CORRUPTION in public service.

39/ The abovementioned solutions are only possible in a Nigeria where the bogus emoluments of politicians are reviewed downwardly. A Nigeria where the Revenue Allocation Sharing Formular among FG, States and Local Government Areas is RENEGOTIATED. The current formular is SKEWED.

40/ END OF THREAD- You can not expect the abovementioned to work in a country where a far-sited Federal Government allocates 52.68% Revenue Allocation to itself, then allocates 26.72% and 20.60% to States and Local Government Areas, respectively. #RestructureNigeriaNow.

Namaste @threadreaderapp, please, UNROLL.