There is a trending piece from Dr. Leornard Shilgba. He was my Lecturer in ABU in the 90s. He taught me a course in mathematics in 200 level. He later left for Atiku’s university, the American University of Nigeria.

The mindset of most people working in private universities in Nigeria is quite different. They look at things from the neoliberal point of view. He gave examples of a number of African countries, their tuition fee, and lecturer salaries. South Africa for example, operates a student loan scheme to fund tuition and it is successful even though they have student debt to deal with just the like the US and UK.

South Africa truly has tuition but Shilgba seems not to have a deep understanding of the South African university system before putting up the piece. South African university tuition is heavily subsidized by the government. The government pays a certain percentage of the tuition to the university as a subsidy while the students pay the balance. The students are then given student loans to pay that balance and take care of their living expenses. The other African countries mentioned by him may also be practicing a similar system.

Foreign PG students in South Africa equally enjoyed fees subsidy to attract them to improve the research output of the country. Some universities such as KwaZulu-Natal University are completely tuition-free for both indigenous and foreign PG students. Foreign PG students equally enjoyed varieties of funding ranging from university-based funding to the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) funding.

Nigeria once had an education bank to give students loans. How did it collapse? What were the factors responsible for the collapse? There is an advocate for another one to fund university tuition. How will the next student loan scheme survive in a country where there is no job creation, graduates are on the N30k NPower scheme, and government jobs are for sale? Before proposing the adoption of a new system, you need to have a critical analysis of its sustainability.

If the tuition fee is N400k to study mathematics, for example, and a student takes a loan to pay to study the course. At the end of the 4 years, he will have a debt of N1.6m plus interest to pay back. Then, he gets lucky after spending 5 years in the labour market to get a teaching job with Kaduna state to teach Mathematics in secondary school with a salary of N55k per month. How will he pay back the loan from the N55k and for how long? How sustainable is that?

The Nigerian system definitely needs cleansing. Basic education can’t be left in the hands of private businessmen. Why are the public schools dead? Are you also advocating for tuition fees in primary and secondary schools to make them work? Universities need to be revitalized if you want to make money out of them. The real cash is from international students. All African countries look up to Nigeria. We have just refused to play that role of a giant. Enabling environment needs to be created for job creation.

We need to create a system where you don’t necessarily need a degree to live your comfortable life. Some people won’t go for a degree if a diploma certificate can get them a job to live their life. University graduates are struggling to get a job, diploma holders are discriminated and you are telling a kid in secondary school that he doesn’t need a degree. He won’t listen to you.

As a matter of fact, most of our students are in the university not to learn but to get a certificate for a meal ticket. If we can create a society that accommodates everyone, irrespective of their level of education, university education can be commercialized and most people won’t bother themselves over it.

People are quick to tell you that there is no free university education anywhere in the world. When you mention that education is free at all levels in Scandinavian countries, they will respond that they are small countries and pay high-income taxes to fund university education. When you tell them that the tax in Scandinavian countries is high because the salary is high and that they effectively managed their resources instead of stealing them, they keep quiet looking for another excuse. You ask them how much income tax a civil servant taking home N60k should pay to run our basic needs like education and health and they are mute.

You can’t hear about crude oil theft in Scandinavian countries. You can hear the Accountant General of the Scandinavian countries doing with over 100bn and the people will be making excuses for the country. You can’t find them spending billions to maintain non-functional refineries yearly. Scandinavian politicians are not cashing out like ours and quite a number of them are women.

ASUU is battling university proliferation and funding but the government said the money is not there to fund universities but they are establishing new ones. It does not add up. If the government is sincere, they should organize a national conference for all the stakeholders to deliberate on our idea of University education and the future we want to build.

Corruption is still on the high side. We need to curb the mismanagement of public funds and our natural resources. We need to be sure that we are truly poor as a nation and can’t fund our basics need like education and health. If tuition will be introduced, we need to put up a system to ensure that it will not be mismanaged.

What we should possibly be advocating for is for tuition fees to be introduced in public universities for the government to pay. A university with 40,000 students will receive the full tuition of the 40,000 students from the government. If the government won’t pay the full but subsidized with a certain percentage, the university receives the percentage for the 40,000 students from the government while the students pay the balance.

With such a system, the universities should not have a funding issues. They will have full financial autonomy, and the council has total control of the finances of the university.

Meanwhile, a law should be enacted that will make all public officers’ kids attend Nigerian public schools even if they can afford to take them abroad or to private schools from their private pockets. ASUU won’t have to go on strike for funding. The politicians and the super civil servants will be the ones to fight for public schools for their kids’ sake.

Private university workers and their neoliberal ideology – a response to Dr. Shilgba on ASUU matters.

There is a trending piece from Dr. Leornard Shilgba. He was my Lecturer in ABU in the 90s. He taught me a course in mathematics in 200 level. He later left for Atiku’s university, the American University of Nigeria.

The mindset of most people working in private universities in Nigeria is quite different. They look at things from the neoliberal point of view. He gave examples of a number of African countries, their tuition fee, and lecturer salaries. South Africa for example, operates a student loan scheme to fund tuition and it is successful even though they have student debt to deal with just the like the US and UK.

South Africa truly has tuition but Shilgba seems not to have a deep understanding of the South African university system before putting up the piece. South African university tuition is heavily subsidized by the government. The government pays a certain percentage of the tuition to the university as a subsidy while the students pay the balance. The students are then given student loans to pay that balance and take care of their living expenses. The other African countries mentioned by him may also be practicing a similar system.

Foreign PG students in South Africa equally enjoyed fees subsidy to attract them to improve the research output of the country. Some universities such as KwaZulu-Natal University are completely tuition-free for both indigenous and foreign PG students. Foreign PG students equally enjoyed varieties of funding ranging from university-based funding to the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) funding.

Nigeria once had an education bank to give students loans. How did it collapse? What were the factors responsible for the collapse? There is an advocate for another one to fund university tuition. How will the next student loan scheme survive in a country where there is no job creation, graduates are on the N30k NPower scheme, and government jobs are for sale? Before proposing the adoption of a new system, you need to have a critical analysis of its sustainability.

If the tuition fee is N400k to study mathematics, for example, and a student takes a loan to pay to study the course. At the end of the 4 years, he will have a debt of N1.6m plus interest to pay back. Then, he gets lucky after spending 5 years in the labour market to get a teaching job with Kaduna state to teach Mathematics in secondary school with a salary of N55k per month. How will he pay back the loan from the N55k and for how long? How sustainable is that?

The Nigerian system definitely needs cleansing. Basic education can’t be left in the hands of private businessmen. Why are the public schools dead? Are you also advocating for tuition fees in primary and secondary schools to make them work? Universities need to be revitalized if you want to make money out of them. The real cash is from international students. All African countries look up to Nigeria. We have just refused to play that role of a giant. Enabling environment needs to be created for job creation.

We need to create a system where you don’t necessarily need a degree to live your comfortable life. Some people won’t go for a degree if a diploma certificate can get them a job to live their life. University graduates are struggling to get a job, diploma holders are discriminated and you are telling a kid in secondary school that he doesn’t need a degree. He won’t listen to you.

As a matter of fact, most of our students are in the university not to learn but to get a certificate for a meal ticket. If we can create a society that accommodates everyone, irrespective of their level of education, university education can be commercialized and most people won’t bother themselves over it.

People are quick to tell you that there is no free university education anywhere in the world. When you mention that education is free at all levels in Scandinavian countries, they will respond that they are small countries and pay high-income taxes to fund university education. When you tell them that the tax in Scandinavian countries is high because the salary is high and that they effectively managed their resources instead of stealing them, they keep quiet looking for another excuse. You ask them how much income tax a civil servant taking home N60k should pay to run our basic needs like education and health and they are mute.

You can’t hear about crude oil theft in Scandinavian countries. You can hear the Accountant General of the Scandinavian countries doing with over 100bn and the people will be making excuses for the country. You can’t find them spending billions to maintain non-functional refineries yearly. Scandinavian politicians are not cashing out like ours and quite a number of them are women.

ASUU is battling university proliferation and funding but the government said the money is not there to fund universities but they are establishing new ones. It does not add up. If the government is sincere, they should organize a national conference for all the stakeholders to deliberate on our idea of University education and the future we want to build.

Corruption is still on the high side. We need to curb the mismanagement of public funds and our natural resources. We need to be sure that we are truly poor as a nation and can’t fund our basics need like education and health. If tuition will be introduced, we need to put up a system to ensure that it will not be mismanaged.

What we should possibly be advocating for is for tuition fees to be introduced in public universities for the government to pay. A university with 40,000 students will receive the full tuition of the 40,000 students from the government. If the government won’t pay the full but subsidized with a certain percentage, the university receives the percentage for the 40,000 students from the government while the students pay the balance.

With such a system, the universities should not have a funding issues. They will have full financial autonomy, and the council has total control of the finances of the university.

Meanwhile, a law should be enacted that will make all public officers’ kids attend Nigerian public schools even if they can afford to take them abroad or to private schools from their private pockets. ASUU won’t have to go on strike for funding. The politicians and the super civil servants will be the ones to fight for public schools for their kids’ sake.

©️Amoka

©️Amoka

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Private university workers and their neoliberal ideology – a response to Dr. Shilgba on ASUU matters.