On the proliferation of universities

As far as university education is concerned, some-body has rightly described Nigeria as a banana republic in apparent reference to the whimsical manner and careless abandon with which approvals are given for the establishment of universities.

The proliferation of universities in every nook and cranny of the country merely reflects our penchant for poor standards and uncaring attitude for the future of technological development of the country.

Nigeria’s university system is today permanently on the radar of world’s university system for its lack of standard and palpable disrespect for principles and ethics in the establishment of well-funded and standardised universities. With most state and private universities not more than glorified secondary schools, the incredible fees being charged by the institutions is a clear manifestation of the thoughtlessness of their establishment.

There seems to be more to profit motive than any genuine intentions by the owners of these institutions.

The claim by most owner-states of these universities to open the floodgate of admissions to their disadvantaged indigenes can be seen as mere ruse in view of the unaffordable fees being charged. Not even the indigenes of these states can afford the outrageous fees they charge.

Apart from the profit motive, there is the unusual delight by most state governors of being called visitors to the universities. Such mundane considerations seem uppermost in the minds of these state executives than the provision of affordable education that can advance the growth and development of the people and their areas.

With about a hundred universities, definitely one would have expected the country’s rate of development to be higher than the present case. But alas! the reverse seems the case. The amount of resources going into the development of these universities appear too thin and apparently insignificant to warrant their potency as factors of social change and agent of technological development.

Recent listing of one hundred best and foremost universities in the world conspicuously evaded the country as none of the one hundred public and private universities was qualified for such world class listing. The fault lies in the establishment of too many universities which has made payment of adequate attention for their development rather impossible.

Thus the point is that if the federal government is really interested in the technological development of the country it would endeavour to set standards and stringent conditions for the establishment of universities in the country.

This is the pattern everywhere, especially where universities are expected to contribute to the overall development of the nation.

- Sunday Olagunju,
lbadan.

Police barracks are an eyesore

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in section 214 sub-sections 1 and 2 provides for the establishment of the Nigeria Police Force. Functions of the police inter alia include the protection of lives, property, waterways, railways, harbours and air fields etc. The Nigeria Police is an off -shoot of the colonial master’s West Africa Volunteer Force and policemen have always been housed in barracks since then.

A barrack is a building or group of buildings used to accommodate military personnel. But within the context of this submission, it is a billet, encampment, garrison, quarters, cantonment, casern and camp where policemen are accomodated. This article is stimulated by the despicable and horrendous state of disrepair and squalor prevailing in over 99.9 per cent of police barracks in Nigeria.

A visit to the dilapidated barracks in Warri, Ekpan, Sapele Ughelli, Asaba, and Oghwashikwu all in Delta State unveils a sordid state of overcrowding, concrete jungle mentality, neglect, no light, no water, disease and a nauseating avalanche of dirt. The story is the same in other states of the federation and Abuja.

This is so because of massive neglect by successive governments in Nigeria, corruption by the top brass of the Nigeria Police who divert and share infrastructural funds into their personal pockets and the laggard and dawdler characteristics of the policemen in the barracks.

In those days when I used to live with my uncle in Sapele barracks, we used to organise general sanitation every Saturday when officers and their families came out to clean the whole surroundings, plant trees, trim flowers and macadamise the roads within the barracks. Nobody was allowed to set up kiosks within and around the barracks. But today our policemen are more interested in their road block escapades than in maintaining and improving on the aesthetics of their barracks. The barracks have become a criminal hide out and complete market place.

It is in the light of this amazingly awesome situation that we call on President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to personally ensure that the fiscal allocation to the Nigeria Police in the current budget is transparently and honestly invested on development of police barracks across the length and breadth of Nigeria, that there should be a mindset reorientation of the police to keep their barracks clean through the re-introduction of “every Saturday sanitation and inspection” and that the police barracks should be depopulated through a limited number of inmates granted each policeman in the barracks.

A situation where one policeman has two wives, twelve children and over five hangers-on in two rooms is grossly unacceptable. The prevailing rot and environmental terrorism in our police barracks across Nigeria must be checkmated.

A healthy policeman is a great asset to our nation.

- Bobson Gbinije,
bogepoilsltd@hotmail.com.