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From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
A veteran journalist and former Managing Director of The Guardian newspaper, Mr Martins Oloja, has warned the Federal Government against further approval of more universities in the country.
Oloja said the federal government should henceforth stop granting licences to private universities and instead ensure that the already established universities meet high standards.
He urged both federal and state governments, as well as owners of existing universities, to ensure that these institutions produce employable graduates. Delivering the 11th Distinguished Lecture of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, on Thursday, the media icon said he believed that better universities can produce excellent models and modules that can address the country’s faltering development agenda.
Oloja, whose lecture was entitled “Can the universities trigger national development amid economic challenges?” said: “We need to turn to our local leaders in Nigeria to deepen their understanding of the essence of what we mean when we say they should understand that education and indeed quality education should be too important to play politics with.
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“There is, therefore, no question about the fact that the time has come for our leaders to lay aside all weight and worries about insecurity that has produced so many crisis merchants and deal with the problems of the Nigerian university system. The entire university system in Nigeria needs a radical overhaul. There is therefore no doubt that we need better universities that will enable organizations to become deliberate and effective in learning, unlearning and relearning essential to progress.
“Nigerian university system with poor research funding and orientation has for some time now been producing the illiterate of the 21st century,” he added.
He also called on eminent personalities in the country to impress upon the government the need to stop establishing or approving the establishment of new universities, and instead ensure that the existing ones are well equipped with necessary facilities. “Whether it is local or global, the university should be equipped enough to play its primary role of turning the ordinary man to be what he wants to be,” Oloja stressed.
On university autonomy, Oloja said: “When the university is autonomous, many schools simultaneously increase tuition, causing society to fear that it will increase the pressure on study costs on the shoulders of learners.” He emphasised that “the battle for restoring the lost glory in higher education in Nigeria must be waged holistically. To improve the standard of education and her global competitiveness, Nigeria must first educate the educators and improve their level of psychological satisfaction.”
