Congratulations to Nigerians, especially millions of students who have been forced to stay at home in the last 8 months. ASUU has suspended its strike.
I think it is high time the Nigerian university system is properly restructured - some level of autonomy that allows significant internally generated revenue (IGR), and private sector audit coordinated by the stakeholders are critical. It is time to introduce tuition and scholarship. The latter is for brilliant students whose parents cannot afford part or full tuition. There are more than a million students (2.1 million as of 2021) in public universities in Nigeria, a tuition of N100k/student translates to N2 trillion in revenue per annum; N50k tuition will create over N1 trillion in revenue. There are several university ventures that can generate revenue - press, guest house, license to private taxi owners and companies, rent from lecturers and staff, etc. Sports could be a means to generate funds if properly managed - soccer, basketball, swimming, etc. The university can generate tons of money from entertainment - theatrical shows, music concerts, etc.
Minimum and base salary may be set the same but lecturers do not have to be paid the same salary. Negotiated salary based on the profile and what a lecturer/prof. is able to deliver should be the driver of remuneration. Annual increase should be based on performance in a transparent annual review process. This drives competition and increases innovation.
If the university can generate 25 - 50% of its revenue internally, the rest can be augmented by the governments and the private sectors who hire the highly qualified personnel produced by these institutions - Federal and State. In the form of competitive and non-competitive grants. A sound and multilayer accountability process will help plug the channel of siphoning IGR by administrators.
The truth is that a lot of the money generated internally is not accounted for..... when corruption is endemic in the nation and you have toothless anti-corruption bodies, EFCC and ICPC, and a judiciary process that is also corrupt and slower than the snail, how can anything work? This is where Nigeria needs to grow up, otherwise, any modernization approach to solve the perennial labor unrest problem in the country's higher institutions will be a waste of time. And, unfortunately, we will continue to slip into the abyss of self-destruction. However, if we get it right, we are just a few years from emerging as a power block in the global arena. A strong higher education system often translates to a STRONG nation. There is no better NATURAL resource than human capital. The human mind can create seemingly impossible stuff (mind-blowing innovations) when the environment is right.... no such could happen in a truncated educational process and system.....
I quote the father of nukes himself, Albert Einstein , “ Mankind invented the atomic bomb , but no mouse would ever construct a mousetrap ”… No nation should have nukes. If some would, then any nation who want should be able to… current situation creates a power imbalance because those who have it are seen as extremely powerful, and those who don’t are extremely weak nations… Here is a list of nations with nukes – declared and undeclared: U.S., China, Russia, Pakistan, India, France, UK, Israel, and North Korea . These countries host nukes from other countries – Germany , Italy , Türkiye , Belgium , Netherlands and Belarus … Many of USSR ’s former regions like Ukraine and Kazakhstan had nukes, and were tricked to give them up, a decision they all regret today. It is known that Japan , though do not have nukes, have capabilities to develop and launch them within a short time, even from the space. Why can’t other nations have nukes? Ownership of nukes is why Iran is holding the...
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