PREMIUM TIMES

Nigeria’s 98 public universities suffer from chronic underfunding; often leading to strikes by lecturers and staff over payment of salaries and other welfare issues.

Experts, including lecturers, blame the underfunding for the poor ranking of Nigerian universities globally with no Nigerian university making the list of the top 1,000 universities in the world. Like the universities, Nigeria’s over 120 public polytechnics and colleges of education are also poorly funded.

Amidst this situation, however, Nigerian federal lawmakers want the creation of over 200 new tertiary institutions; mainly for political reasons as each affected lawmaker wants the institution established in his or her constituency.

In 2012, the House of Representatives committee on NEEDS assessment presented a report in which it noted that infrastructure in Nigerian federal universities are inadequate, dilapidated and overstretched.

Three years before that, the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) reached what is now popularly referred as the 2009 agreement on the revitalisation of the institutions.

Under the agreement, the government would, among others, pump N1.5 trillion into the universities within three years, work towards committing 26 per cent of annual budgets to education and make education funding a first-line charge.

Strikes over underfunding of federal universities

Eleven years after the agreement, industrial actions by ASUU remain perennial. In 2010, members of the union went on strike for six months – from July 2010 to January 2011. From December 2011, they were on another strike for 59 days. Again, the universities were shut for five months from July to December 2013 and from November 2018 to February 2019.

The government made some concessions to the university teachers shortly before the 2019 general elections. But before that, there was a short strike by the union in 2017 and then another one for nine months in 2020.

Despite signing the MoU of 2012 and 2013 and also a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) in 2017, the government has been unable to meet many of the demands of the lecturers.

Meanwhile, very little attention is paid to the perennial strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP). Just like their counterparts in the universities, strikes at federal polytechnics are frequent and disruptive. All of these are primarily because of the failure of the government to properly fund its tertiary schools.

But in spite of the chronic underfunding of existing institutions, many members of the National Assembly want new ones established in their constituencies.

Lawmakers want more federal-owned tertiary institutions

There are 45 federal government-owned universities, according to the National Universities Commission (NUC). There are also 53 and 99 state-owned and private universities respectively. Also, there are 27 federal and 49 states owned colleges of education, according to the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).

In all, the NCCE says, there are 200 accredited institutions awarding NCE certificates in Nigeria.

There are also 32 federal polytechnics in Nigeria, 51 state-owned polytechnics and 64 private polytechnics.

Amidst the challenge of funding these institutions, the ninth National Assembly has 126 bills seeking the establishment of universities (some are concurrence bills seeking to approve what the Senate had passed). There are also 140 bills for the establishment of specialised colleges and 27 for the establishment of polytechnics. In most of the cases, the lawmakers that proposed the establishment of the institutions want them cited in their constituencies.

The lawmakers apparently see the performance of their primary responsibility of lawmaking as not sufficient achievement to present to their constituents for re-election, which explains why they focus on physical projects or handouts. Over the years, zonal intervention projects (ZIPs) serve as the physical projects. However, there has been a shift towards the establishment of tertiary institutions.

Senate-House Rivalry

This new rush has created a rivalry between members of the two chambers, the House and the Senate. In 2019, there was a spat between two federal lawmakers from Delta State, Ovie Omo-Agege, who is the deputy senate president, and Nicholas Ossai (PDP House of Representatives member from Delta) over two bills to establish polytechnics.

Mr Ossai had earlier sponsored a bill to establish a federal polytechnic in Kwale, which was passed by the House and transmitted to the Senate for concurrence. However, the bill was stepped down because the Deputy Senate President had another bill for the establishment of a polytechnic in his own senatorial district in Delta State.

When Mr Omo-Agege’s bill was presented to the House for concurrence, Mr Ossai opposed it on the principle of federal character. Citing Sections 14 and 15 of the Constitution, he argued that Delta South, where Mr Omo-Agege proposed the polytechnic to be sited, already has a number of federal institutions.

“Why I speak against this bill is simple. Before you bring a bill, it must align with the constitution. Hence, I am questioning the foundation of the bill. I am arguing it on equity and fairness. The Orogun Polytechnic– you are setting up a polytechnic in a senatorial district that has the Petroleum University, which is a federal institution. And we are talking of fairness and equity. You are talking of a zone that has Delta State University. You are talking of a zone that has the polytechnic in Oghara,” Mr Ossai argued.

He was ruled out of order by the presiding officer, Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), who stated that the argument of federal character was not relevant in that particular context.

“I am being fair to you, but you must be guided. Everyone knows the importance of school with the high rate of out-of-school children. We need to establish a number of high institutions, if the government can fund it, so be it. We were together with you in Harvard, that district alone, they have over 200 universities, for God’s sake. This is a very straightforward bill, I will now put the question,” Mr Wase said.

It is unclear if the relationship between President Muhammadu Buhari and Mr Omo-Agege played a role, but in May 2021, the president approved the bill by Mr Omo-Agege to establish the polytechnic.

In the 8th Assembly, there was a similar squabble between Abiodun Olujimi, the senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, and Olumide Johnson, the then House of Reps member representing Ijero/Ekiti West/Efon. Both lawmakers wanted a federal institution sited in their respective communities.

But the scramble for the establishment of new universities by lawmakers is not in sync with the programme of the government on the establishment of schools.

In June, President Buhari approved the establishment of four new universities. Two of them are universities of technology and two of medicine and nutrition; to be sited in Jigawa, Akwa Ibom, Osun and Bauchi states. The government also plans to establish a National Institute of Technology in Abuja.

The universities proposed by the government have specific targets – medicine and nutrition, and two additional technology schools, unlike the seemingly directionless approach of the lawmakers. None of the four new federal universities is among the scores the lawmakers want to be established.

However, the president could also be accused of proliferating schools in his hometown. In July 2019, Mr Buhari assented to the bill establishing federal polytechnic, Daura. In addition, there is the Daura transport university by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation which means the president has, while in office, supported the establishment of two tertiary institutions in his hometown

In all, President Buhari has, since assuming office, approved the establishment of nine federal polytechnics. Federal Polytechnic Ayede, Ogo Oluwa Local Government Area of Oyo State; Federal polytechnic Wunnune, Benue State; Federal polytechnic Daura, Katsina, State; Federal Polytechnic Kaltungo, Gombe State; Federal Polytechnic Shendam, Plateau State; Federal polytechnic Ohodo, Enugu State; Federal polytechnic Ugep, Plateau State; Federal Polytechnic Monguno, Borno State and Federal Polytechnic Orogun, Delta State.

Six colleges of educations have also been established by the administration. The schools are to be located in Sokoto, Benue, Ebonyi, Bauchi, Edo, and Osun states.

While the federal polytechnics in Daura, Katsina State and Orogun, Delta State, were established after the president assented to the establishment bills passed by the parliament, others were created by executive fiat, with bills to establish them still at various legislative stages in the National Assembly.