The recent damning report over alleged underhand tactics in the accreditation process of Nigerian universities has raised concerns over quality control in these institutions. According to the report, some universities rent lecturers and borrow equipment and even books just to scale the accreditation hurdle. The report further says that the accreditation process by the National Universities Commission (NUC) has been riddled with unethical conduct, including bribery, corruption and manipulation.
There are fears that these infractions will undermine the integrity of the accreditation process if they are not quickly checked. Although the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu, has swiftly dismissed the allegation, we believe that it is weighty enough to be thoroughly investigated. Nigerians would like to know the outcome of the investigation. Only an independent probe panel will unravel if the allegation is true or false. On no account should the matter be swept under the carpet in the usual Nigerian style.
There should be no sacred cows in this saga. We say this because a flawed and compromised accreditation process will have dire consequences on the quality assurance of these programmes and their products. The NUC should not be too defensive over the matter but must strive to put its house in order. It must beam its searchlight on those involved in some of these accreditations and ensure that its quality assurance is not tainted or compromised. Any official of the NUC or university found to have compromised the accreditation process must be severely sanctioned. The affected university will lose the accreditation of the compromised programmes as well.
As at 2024, Nigeria had over 200 universities, with 62 federal, 63 state and 149 private. And only 100,000 academic staff service 2.1million students. This is grossly inadequate. As a result of the unbridled proliferation of universities, poor staffing, funding and equipment in some of these new universities, the accreditation process may at times be compromised in some cases. Agreed that there is no perfect accreditation process anywhere in the world, we must strive for the best. We must always avoid a flawed process before it becomes the norm. According to the NUC, its accreditation covers seven sections, including four core areas—academic matters, staffing, physical facilities and library resources. To attain full accreditation status, a programme must score a minimum of 70 per cent in each of the four core areas and an overall score of 70 per cent or more across all seven sections. Let the NUC obey its rules.
We urge the NUC to intentionally strengthen its accreditation process and ensure that its integrity is not undermined or manipulated by unscrupulous officials. It is never a rocket science to ensure quality academic programmes in our universities through a seamless accreditation process. Our accreditation process must be in line with global standards. Most of our universities have not done well in global university ranking. Even in Africa, they are not even among the top. While the quality of our varsity graduates is rated highly globally, we urge our varsities to compete with the best in the world in terms of varsity ranking and other areas.
Despite the refutation of the allegation by NUC, the state of some universities and the poor quality of graduates in some courses support the view that the university accreditation exercise may likely be flawed and compromised. For instance, in some universities across the country, some departments lack the basic facilities to adequately teach these courses. Some departments have very few lecturers, as few as three or four. The implication is that these lecturers are over-burdened with too many courses per week, more than the number of courses stipulated by the NUC to be taught by a lecturer. Also, many departments in Nigerian universities do not have qualified lecturers with a PhD. After renting lecturers for accreditation, they revert to their old ways to the detriment of the students and quality education in the country.
Universities are centres of learning where integrity, honesty and professionalism should be upheld. Therefore, these virtues should be maintained because their absence will jeopardize the entire academic culture and imperil scholarship. Before now, the NUC accreditation was reputed to be strict and intense to the extent that some courses in first generation universities failed to pass the accreditation hurdle. But these days, the situation is different as mushroom universities without facilities and manpower are easily accredited.
The NUC should rise to the occasion and ensure the credibility of its accreditation process. The NUC must deploy people of impeccable character for the accreditation of varsity programmes. Those chosen for the onerous task should be adequately remunerated. The NUC boss should do more to restore the glorious years of academic excellence in Nigerian universities through credible and transparent accreditation of varsity programmes.