According to the World Bank, there is a direct correlation between sustainable development and poverty reduction; however, it has also been established that education and knowledge capacity building are the key accelerators of sustainable development. In spite of the abundance of verifiable global evidences trumpeting the power of education, we have been plagued by visionless leaders at the national stage since 1999, whose short sightedness has dislocated our educational system. As a consequence, only the rich in Nigeria can truly afford quality basic education in the country, and saleable tertiary education abroad. I believe in this country, even with our religious and tribal fault lines,  I keep faith with the promise in a statement  Prof. Pat Utomi made  a few years ago, that, “our future is so bright that one might need sun glasses to look at it”.   I believe that inherent in the conundrum of the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ ( ASUU) struggle is the seed for a thriving world-class tertiary ecosystem. But that is only if our leaders rouse themselves from their political doldrums.
The position of the Federal Government, as espoused by the Minister of State for Labour, Bar. Festus Kyamo, (SAN),  that there is no money to meet the  demand of ASUU, is not only lame and unfortunate,  it is also a confirmation of the lack of capacity for vision, and the ability to think outside the box.
The unfounded assertion of the present administration, especially those who ought to know,  smacks of pure ignorance of available data and their implications. For instance, recent data from the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives revealed that more than 11000 nurses have departed the shores of this country since 2019. This data maybe interpreted as brain drain at an unprecedented level, but what if it is viewed as human capital export instead? Can you imagine how much diaspora remittance has emanated from these nurses? The data highlights something very significant, that even with a broken tertiary education sector; we are still able to churn out nurses able to pass qualifying exams to work internationally.
The same applies  to Nigerian trained doctors  who are now like hotcakes in the global market. Currently, our doctors are  being recruited by firms from the United Kingdom, UK, United States of America, USA,  Canada and Saudi Arabia. In fact, a doctor friend of mine; a lecturer in one of our state universities, confided in me that she and many of her colleagues regularly receive invitations  for job openings by foreign recruiters.
Now is this brain drain, or human capital export? It depends on your perspective. But you must remember that inflows from diaspora remittance before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was already competing with our annual national budget. For instance, in 2020, diaspora remittance stood at $23.45 billion. The implication is that most families in the country are able to meet their daily needs because of a family member working abroad. If these are established facts, how is it that we approach the funding of education with the mindset of expenditure, rather than investment?
How can we say we have no money to meet ASUU’s public universities revitalisation fund, when available data from the CBN show that between 2010 and 2020 Nigerians spent a whopping $28.65 billion in foreign universities as tuition. In the current exchange rate, it translates to about N11.62 trillion. Also, recent data from the CBN reveal that between January and May of this year alone, Nigerians have spent $378.77 million on foreign universities. Our appetite for foreign education ranked us as the country with the highest number of students abroad in Africa, with an estimated 76,338 students in 2018 according to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is indeed a hard sell for the FG to tell Nigerians there is no money for ASUU, when it can afford to use Chinese loans to build rail lines to the Niger Republic. Granted, Nigeria may not be as rich as it was when I was a little boy, when a certain head of state was heard saying, ‘we have so much money that we don’t know what to do with it”. However, we are being inebriated by various cancers, including,  corruption, outright thievery, incompetence, lack of vision and patriotism.
ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke,  stated the situation very succinctly in his response to FG’s claim of paucity of funds, when he said, “the major reason given by the Federal Government for the miserly offer; paucity of revenue, is not tenable. This is because of several reasons, chief of which, is poor management of the economy. This has given rise to leakages in the revenue of governments at all levels.”
“There is wasteful spending, misappropriation of funds, and outright stealing of our collective patrimony. ASUU believes that if the leakages in the management of the country’s resources are stopped, there will be more than enough to meet the nation’s revenue and expenditure targets without borrowing and plunging the country into a debt crisis as is the case now.”
Even though I align myself with the Professor in most part, I have a contrary view regarding the issue of loan for our universities.
In my opinion, if the loan will not be eaten by monkeys, swallowed by snakes, or consumed by termites, then the Federal Government should borrow for the improvement of university infrastructure, and the enhancement of learning environment.  The goal should be return on investment, in terms of improved global ranking for our universities; human capital export, and the associated diaspora remittance; global knowledge centres capable of attracting foreign direct investment; attraction of both foreign faculty, and foreign students; and the development of home grown solutions for national challenges. Currently, and thankfully, the 2021 – 2027 Strategic Plan on ranking, and the 2019 – 2023 Blue Print on the Rapid Revitalisation of University Education in Nigeria implemented by the National University Commission is already bearing fruit. The latest Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) indicates a marked improvement with the University of Ibadan (UI), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), and the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) appearing in top positions.
This is the first time since the inception of the ranking in 2003 that UI is appearing in the 800 – 901 band.  Last week, the latest Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subject (GRAS) was released showing more positive results for Nigeria; with FUNAAB  in the 201 – 300 band in Veterinary Sciences, while OAU appeared in the 201 – 300 band in Dentistry and Oral Sciences, and the University of Nigeria Nsuka appeared in the 401 – 500 band in Psychology.The argument is clear, tertiary education in Nigeria is not dead. But we can do better. While the vision for global ranking is clear, and  on course, other deliverables must be clearly articulated and accelerated. The issue of funding tertiary education must be put in the front burner. The current administration should follow the advice of ASUU and fully deploy revenue from the increased telecommunication tax of 12.5 per cent to tertiary education. As usual, all we need to do well as a country is at our disposal, but we are our own nemesis. Nevertheless, I have hope that  the current ASUU strike would not be suspended but be brought to an end for good, which is ASUU’s desire, as well as the  parents’ and students’.

By: Raphael Pepple