By Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD
Education has been identified as a crucial sector across the globe. It plays a crucial role in the development of a country in every aspect. Consequently, it is often said that a country cannot grow beyond the level of the education of its people. This critical role of education towards nation building may have been the principal reason that made the colonial masters to establish a college of the University of London in Ibadan, Nigeria in 1948.
The University College Ibadan founded in 1948 became the oldest university in Nigeria. It was one of the many colleges of the University of London. It became an independent university in 1963 and renamed the University of Ibadan (UI). Other first generation universities follow up shortly in 1960. They were world-class universities, fairly on equal standing with other university around the world then, in terms of imparting contemporary knowledge with high quality facilities to men and women of all races. They did well in the generation of new ideas and intellectual practices relevant to the needs of its immediate community, Nigeria and the world at large. Regrettably, these universities were watched degraded and their world-class status lost, at a time when we were supposed to be working towards the status of a “developed country”.
The leaders of progressive countries are individuals that believe in the potentials of their countries, who are ready to stake their life and all they’ve got for the country. When you watch our leaders deliver their grandiloquent speeches with fantastic grammar, you will mistake them for a God-sent but unfortunately, such speeches always end where they are delivered with little or no action intended except where such an issue borders on personal interest or interest of their cronies.
President Muhammadu Buhari in one of his speeches in 2017 said that in today’s world, it is those who acquire the most qualitative education, equipped with requisite skills and training, and empowered with practical knowhow that are leading the rest. He said education is our launch pad to a more successful, more productive and more prosperous future and we cannot afford to continue lagging behind. He emphasized that we must get it right and that for us to get it right, we must set our education sector on the right path. He went further to state that no nation can achieve economic, social, political and cultural prosperity without a sound and functional education system.
3 years later and still counting, I am still trying to figure out if he truly meant those words or it was just one of those eloquently written speeches that are usually prepared for him to read. The progress of Nigeria is unfortunately in the hands of leaders that don’t seem to believe in the country and her potentials.
I was reading through the development of education system in Malaysia and I was wondering why can’t we be as focused as Malaysia. Just like Nigeria, the oldest university in Malaysia was established in 1949 when two old colleges were merged. But unlike Nigeria, Malaysia seems to have sincere and purposeful education policies. Their education development master plan in 2006 was to produce quality education for all by 2010. Their Education and Vision 2020 was to gain the status of “a fully developed country” for Malaysia by year 2020. Part of the said vision, was the development of a scientific and progressive society that is innovative and forward looking. A society that is not only a consumer of technology but a contributor to the scientific and technological civilization of the future.
In achieving the vision, the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia shopped for their best brains for the universities and sent them for quality PhDs in the best universities around the World. I met some of them during my PhD in the UK. They didn’t just dream as the case with Nigeria but walk their vision by creating an enabling environment to achieve the set VISION: which is to develop a scientific, progressive, and innovative society that is not only a consumer of technology but a contributor to the scientific and technological civilization of the future. The Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia made provisions for different categories of research grants that is easily accessible by their Academics and Researchers to execute innovative ideas. They have 4 categories of research grant schemes; Fundamental research grant scheme, Prototype research grant scheme, Long term/longitudinal research grant scheme, and Transdisciplinary research grant scheme. You can hardly find a Senior Lecturer in Malaysia university that is not working on at least one of the 4 research grant scheme, either as Principal Investigator or a team member.
Malaysia has created a purposeful system with world-class public universities that are highly ranked among the world universities ranking. Their budget for education speaks volume. Education was allocated RM50.4 billion (over NGN4.6 trillion) in Malaysia’s 2021 budget proposal. They are even generating foreign exchange for the country from international students. International students were reported to be contributing an average of RM7.2bn (£1.4bn) to Malaysia per year via tuition fees and other living expenses. Their 2020 expectation was to generate RM15.6 billion from international students before COVID-19 meddle with every plan. Malaysian universities are now training our “purposeless” PhD scholars without the provision of the enabling environment to work on their return. And when those PhDs return to the country, it’s either they are expected to do innovative research with their salary or their saliva, or be blamed for not able to do research.
Meanwhile, amidst our cry for the underfunding of education and the resultant ASUU strike in the universities (cause and effect), their kids are abroad studying. A recent report from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace revealed how Nigerian political elites spent millions on their children in UK schools and the payment they made while Nigeria’s schools suffer due to neglect and underfunding. They don’t hide the education of their kids abroad but brandish their graduations and share the photos on social media with pride for us to see. They even request we join them with prayers as they celebrate their kids achievement of graduating from UK university.
As the President stated in 2017, the world is led by those who acquire the most qualitative education, equipped with requisite skills and training, and empowered with practical knowhow. Every country is creating the enabling environment to achieve that. So, what is our plan and how do we hope to achieve the feat that the likes of Malaysia and the rest of the world are coasting home for? What are the supporting policies? Is it the education of their kids abroad at the expense of the poor masses or the strategic plan to render the public universities with 98% of the students population incapacitated just like public primary and secondary schools, for the private universities with 2% of our students population to flourish, a plan they have not being able to achieve, thanks to ASUU?
How did we got to this level where countries like Malaysia that we were well off than up till the 70s are progressing while Nigeria is constantly on the path of retrogressions? Possibly, while Malaysia has nationalists as leaders, Nigeria has got leaders that are supposed to fix health sectors but prefer to travel abroad with their families for medicare, leaders that are supposed to fix the road and security but creating airports in every state to avoid bad roads and insecurities. Possibly because Nigeria is blessed with leaders that are supposed to fix education sectors but prefer to take their kids abroad for education because they don’t believe in the system, leaders that expected you to be grateful for doing a little bit of the job they were elected/appointed and paid handsomely to do?
We can fix Nigeria if we believe in the country. Like Audu Bulama Bukarti rightly stated, “prudent management of public resources to provide quality education, equal opportunities, create friendly environment and infrastructure is the first step toward a peaceful, prosperous Nigeria”. But why will you want to fix a system you do not believe in? Waiting for a leader to fix a system he does not believe in is like waiting for rain in the drought, or expecting a Camel to pass through the eye of the needle.
©️Amoka
