… In a Digital World, Professors Can Be Sourced in Any Part of the World to Teach Students in Nigerian Universities
… Appeals to FG, ASUU to Make Sacrifice for Nigerians
By Abdulrahman Aliagan, Abuja
“I may not agree with their methods. I think it’s outdated; we shouldn’t be applying such method again. It is self-destructive. We live in a digital world today, that there are multiple sources of knowledge. Now, people can acquire knowledge through multiple sources. We can sit here in this room and get a professor in India, United States or in United Kingdom to teach the children in Nigeria Universities, it can be done.”
Kwara Central senatorial candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi has described the prolonged industrial impasse between the federal government of Nigeria and Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU as a disgrace and show of shame. This was stated in an exclusive interview with Time Nigeria in Abuja.
According to him, “For me, is a disgrace and show of shame, when I was in the university we had ASUU strike, when my children entered University they had ASUU strike, if we don’t find a lasting solution to this problem, the possibilities are there that when my grandchildren enter University there would still be ASUU strike. Are we not ashamed? He quarried.
Bolaji, a former Commissioner for Education under Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki’s administration noted that, there are two fundamental questions to the problem. He said, “One, how do we solve this immediate ASUU problem and two, what do we do to make sure it never happens again?
“I think on this current one, both sides have to be very practical and realistic. ASUU continues to insist that there were promises made by government in the past that were never fulfilled. They were also saying that for the months they have been on strike they needed to be paid while federal government is saying that they don’t have that kind of money. And it’s true, that kind of money does not exist anywhere in this country today. Nigeria is broke.”Former Minister of Youth and Sports Development appeals to both the leadership of ASUU and Federal government to meet in the midway. He maintained that, “There is no absolute position. So let us solve this particular problem, let government honestly come forward with what they can realistically do that is clear to everyone and to acknowledge that ASUU have genuine grievances.”
He expresses his displeasure on the method adopted by the Union, adding that the method is obsolete, outdated and such should not be adopted in the 21st Century. Though, he acknowledged that ASUU has genuine courses. According to him, “I may not agree with their methods. I think it’s outdated; we shouldn’t be applying such method again. “It is self-destructive. We live in a digital world today, that there are multiple sources of knowledge. Now, people can acquire knowledge through multiple sources. We can sit here in this room and get a professor in India, United States or in United Kingdom to teach the children in Nigeria Universities, it can be done.”
Bolaji maintains that, “ASUU have to realise that strike can no longer be the method to achieve the desired goal again, no matter how noble their intentions are and no matter how justifiable their grievances are. Federal government also has to show that they are not calling their bluff and that government is genuinely interested in that sector and willing to do what is best for it. I think there is lack of trust in the heart of all this. Once we are able to resolve this particular one, which I believe it will be resolved sooner rather than later, even-though, it is long overdue. Because it’s becoming a major problem, whose consequences we may not even be able to estimate now. COVID-19 had kept the children away from school for several months, we now started this ASUU strike and it means that they would have lost more than one calendar year of education.”
PDP-Kwara Central senatorial candidate however appeals to the two parties to make sacrifice to Nigerians at this critical time. Saying, “It’s time for people to make sacrifices on both sides to end this, after ending this particular strike that is when, the work has to start for it not to happen again”.
He noted that the whole educational system in Nigeria needed to be reconfigured and refocused, saying that the model and architecture we are using is outdated. “The entire educational system needs to be reconfigured. The model we are using, the architecture is outdated. We cannot be living in 2023 are we behaving as if our education is locked in the 1970s. At the moment, it does appear that education system is locked in the 1970s and there are practical steps that can be taken to correct that, to bring our higher education up to date.”
Bolaji cautions federal government from opening new universities when the ones already established are not well-funded. According to him, “I agree with ASUU, I don’t see a sense in expanding access to university education by approving new universities, when we are not properly funding the ones on the ground. I don’t think that makes sense. There’s no sense in building more universities when an average 10 year old child in Nigeria cannot even read and write.”
He advised that the resources being channel to university system be redirected to primary and secondary education and let the university education remains the prerogative choice of those who wanted it. “We need to redirect all the resources using to establish new universities to primary and secondary education. If government is able to develop primary education, solid, secondary education solid, then university education now becomes a prerogative of individuals, who need it.
“Because you also have built a major post-secondary education system that is focused on delivering real skills to people and they don’t have to go to university for them to be productive. But when you don’t have anything in between secondary and university education, then it means that everybody leaving secondary education will have to go to university, in other countries that had make progress, is not everybody that goes to university, they go to university because they need university education. People leave secondary school and go to sixth form colleges, go to other vocational colleges and start work then, if they wanted to go to university, they go. Can someone leaves secondary education in Nigeria and get a good job? The answer is no, because they have not been equipped with the education that will give them a job. If you don’t go to university, you don’t go Polytechnics in Nigeria. You don’t go to Colleges of Education, which is the least favourite, what would you do? So, there is a missing space between secondary school and university education, which we need to develop. We equally need to develop the entire education system.
“So if we’re able to do that, then there would be less pressure, there would less demand for university education, when there is less demand for University education, it means that government don’t have to spend so much money. We need to be practical. The university education that some of us attended in the 90s and those who came before us, in my class, we were 48, go to the same school today, the University of Lagos and count how many students are in one class? He asked.
Bolaji pointed out that, Nigeria’s population has exploded and increased exponentially, he maintained that “Nigeria can no longer sustain it. How much do we pay for petrol subsidy? We don’t need to continue to burn that money. We can put that money in education, because petrol subsidy all evidence points to the fact that petrol subsidy only benefits people like us who drive cars. So we need to repurpose that money and put it in education. Our children can then become more productive, more prosperous and more competitive and by implication more productive country.
He quarried further that, “We keep saying we have the highest number of youth population in the world, but what does that even mean? Youth population that is not productive. We need to invest in young people so that they can become more productive and that can push up the Nigerian economy up.
He pointed out that, “The informal and formal sectors, there are so much we can do around that and these things are doable, they are possible. There are specific policy prescriptions that we can put forward to rebuild or reconfigure the entire university education system, in a way that benefits the students, lecturers, parents and the country entirely. We need to start conversations around this and for me, that’s one of the reasons I want to go to the National Assembly. I believe I can be part of the conversation that will reposition education in this country. He concludes.
