Don Carpets Nigeria’s University System

Foremost Professor of Political Science and Administration at the University of Port Harcourt, Eme Ekekwe, has decried the university system in Nigeria, saying it needs urgent revamp.
Prof. Ekekwe made his views public during a valedictory lecture titled “, Here is What I Have Learnt As A Teacher” in Port Harcourt.
He said apart from the huge brain drain affecting university system,  there was huge intellectual decay, and corruption that have affected the quality of student over the years.
In addition, he stated that universities now have become a place for oppression, as lecturers silence opposing views and encourage academic mediocrity.
Ekekwe recalled that the decay started during the administration of former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Badomosi Babangida which displayed anti-intellectual policies, thus, leading to decline in quality of education as academics were compelled to tow lines of the government.
Even with the advent of democracy, the university don opined that things have gone worse as poor funding and quality of teaching have grown worse over the years
“ The university is like a supermarket of ideas and if there is no room for radicalism, then, in my opinion, it is no university,” Ekekwe said.
The current situation, he further argued, benefits politicians and leaders who do not want those who will challenge the status quo.
In his view, the result of this is that universities produce unemployable graduates: “ We labour in vain producing mass of vain men and we have become so local that there is nothing universal among us.”
Challenging the university authorities on the need for stock-taking, Ekekwe submitted that teaching of self reliance remains the bedrock of a good tertiary education as students will be able to stand and defend their worth on graduation.
The professor used the occasion to thank the University of Port Harcourt, students and all those who have made his teaching career a success.