"Nigerian Universities Are Ugly, Need Private Management"

"Nigerian Universities Are Ugly, Need Private Management"

Legit.ng guest contributor Kelvin Uzoka writes about peculiarities of Nigerian universities. He stresses the importance of collaboration between the management and students. He also suggests public institutions should be privately managed.

Mr. Uzoka, in his message to info@naij.com, laments that Nigerian universities lack understanding between authorities and students.

Nigerian universities built with the Federal Government funds are now being partly funded by the students. That is fine. I have no problem with that.

However, students spend between four to six years in the universities. Within this period, they often bear the costs of developing the infrastructure. In this case, the university management must acknowledge the students are important stakeholders along with the government.

Students of Nigerian universities must be reckoned and consulted with. Their approval must be consented before university workers embark on any strike, or any contract is awarded with their money, or before any new recruitment is embarked on, and so on.

A student who had spent four years in a public university is often compelled to pay a certain fee for the development of the school. Will heavens fall if a lecturer, who earns his living from the same public institution, is compelled to contribute to the development of the same school? After all, it's a public school. Everyone is a stakeholder.

In certain private schools, at the end of every semester, a questionnaire is passed across to all students. They ascertain the usefulness of all lecturers. A lecturer who gets the highest rejection is investigated and eventually fired. The story is different in Nigerian universities. Petition a lecturer today, and the next semester, that same lecturer becomes your project supervisor! You are finished!

Nigerian universities are not universities in the real sense. Nigerian universities have no philosophy about education. It is better not to train a student, than to train the student half-baked.

There are more than a thousand typewriter typists who currently work in public Nigerian universities. Not only are they redundant, but also useless. Yet, the university neither trains them to become modern computer literates, nor sacks them. They are government workers.

Government work is work for life, whether you are productive and efficient, or not. You are employed. Even after your death, you still earn your full salary. You still have your name on the list of persons that just went on a six months' training, even though you died three years ago. That's the beauty of government work. That is why our public institutions are very ugly. We need private management of public institutions.

Mr. Uzoka studies Accounting management at Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku. He is a resident of Asaba, Delta State, and a native of Egbudu, Rivers State.

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Source: Legit.ng

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