Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin
Chairman of the re-negotiation committee between the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN),Saturday said Nigeria would require an average of N1.1 million to train each undergraduates in its universities. He also challenged Nigerian universities to strive to be among the top five rated universities in the world if the nation must compete favourably with others in the world.
Delivering a lecture at the 2019 convocation of the Kwara State University, Malete, Babalakin, regretted that” Nigeria has lost out completely in the world of academic”.
In his lecture entitled “ The Desperate Need to Reposition the Nigeria Education System”, the legal giant said, “as a nation Nigeria must start again”.
Decrying the level of rot in the nation’s educational system, the guest lecturer regretted that the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan which was ranked no 4 in the 70s was no longer reckon with in the world.
According to him, “There is nothing called a Nigerian education system, if we don’t have education system that can compete with the world, we should stop educating people.
“To train an undergraduate in the Nigerian university, Nigeria will require N1.1million annually to enable an undergraduate have all the facilities required.”
He said the preference of many companies to recruit expatriates in place of Nigerian graduates was “a vote of no confidence on Nigeria’s education system”.
In his address, the visitor to the institution, Governor AbdulRahman Abdurasaq, challenged the authorities of the university to join his administration in its “plan to make Kwara the agric hub of in West Africa by coming up with cutting edge-technology and ideas to realise this vision”.
Represented by the deputy governor, Mr. Kayode Alabi, the visitor also decried the recent anomalies discovered in the 2019 UTME calling on all stakeholders in the state to join hands with his government “to roll back this anomaly in the most practical way”.