Revitalizing University Education in Nigeria

[Toyin Falola]

This is an important document.

[Okey Iheduru]

It's an "important document" based on several surprising historical fallacies:

 

1. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka was NOT a product or outcome of the Ashby Commission of 1959. The Eastern Region Government established UNN back in 1955 by an Act of the Eastern Region Parliament. The Government of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe received immense help from the Ford Foundation and his friend, Dr. John Hannah, President of Michigan State University (1940-1968) to create the first-ever "land-grant" university in Africa that began classes in 1960. The first two VCs were MSU faculty; and until the outbreak the civil war in 1967, about 100 MSU faculty and staff were teaching/working at UNN at any given semester.

2. Prof. Rasheed wrote: "... the findings of the Ashby Commission regarding balance in the structure and geographical distribution of university education, led to the establishment of yet another University in 1962, the University of Lagos" (emphasis added). I'm not sure what "balance" he's referring to here. If he had done some google search, he'd found that Unilag was established for a different reason.

3. Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) was created in 1984, following the conversion of Rivers State University of Science and Technology to a degree-granting institution. By then, other state universities had been operating for up to tree years, including then Bendel State University, Ekpoma (founded by Prof. Ambrose Alli) and Imo State University, Etiti (founded by Dr. Sam Mbakwe) that started classes in 1981! Ogun State University, Ago-Iwoyi and Ondo State University later joined. It's therefore a surprise that the NUC Executive Secretary claimed that "Rivers State blazed the trail" in 1979 by establishing RSUST. In fact, University of Cross River State which later became University of Uyo started two years before RSUST!

4. The first private universities started in 1983, NOT 1999. The pioneers were TEDEM: Imo Technical University, Owerri (founded by Dr. Basil Nnanna Ukaegbu and fed by two prep colleges) and John Paul University, Aba founded by Dr. Bernard Uzoukwu Nzeribe. Both universities were established by statute and recognized by JAMB and NUC, but they were proscribed by--you guessed it--Major General Muhammadu Buhari in 1984 and their students asked to go home.

I'll stop here for now.

Okey

On Tue, Jun 18, 2019 at 7:08 PM Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

This is an important document.

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Okey C. Iheduru

e-mail: okeyi...@gmail.com

Just published “The African Corporation, ‘Africapitalism’ and Regional Integration in Africa” (September 2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785362538.

[Ezinwanyi Adam]

Your number 4 is incorrect, sir. At least, I remember that Adventist College of West Africa, a degree awarding institution then and now Babcock University was founded in 1959. Your stated institutions could never have been the first private universities in Nigeria.

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[Ndubisi Obiorah]

When was ADWA's degree awarding status formally recognized by NUC please? Thanks.

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[Okey Iheduru]

A number of private sector institutions were awarding degrees, even much earlier than the so-called "second generation universities" in Nigeria. However, their degrees were moderated by either older Nigerian universities or foreign institutions to which these Nigerian private sector institutions were affiliated. So, in addition to Adventist College/Babcock, you had Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu (BA & B.Th, Pontifical University, Rome), the Catholic Institute of West Africa (M.A. from either John Lateran University or Pontifical University, Rome--not sure), etc. Babcock may want to claim to have started in 1959, but that's a stretch, don't you think? Quite a number of private universities in Nigeria today started out as primary and secondary schools. The first full-fledged Nigerian university remains The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and it was established "To Restore the Dignity of Man," thank you!

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