Despite Admitting To Underfunding Universities, UI Awards Buhari An Honorary Degree
The Oasis Reporters
November 18, 2018
If any President or Head Of State has ever pummeled universities more, it is Muhammadu Buhari, yet in a twist of irony, at the 70th anniversary celebration of the University of Ibadan, the premier university awards him a Doctor of Letters (D. Litt) degree.
Muhammadu Buhari’s representative, Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, Saturday, November 17 said Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was right in its demands for better funding for education, because the sector is underfunded.
He, nonetheless, called on universities to explore other sources of funding.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said this much at University of Ibadan 70th Foundation Day ceremony and award of certificates, said budgetary allocation alone is not enough to cater for the nation’s education, so Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has a valid point for their agitation.
While emphasising the country cannot achieve accelerated development without substantial investment in education, he canvassed raising money from the capital market to fund education.
Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) called on the university community to hold on to the tenets of academic excellence, integrity and patriotic zeal in the country.
Earlier, Chancellor of the institution, Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar 111, noted that for universities to remain relevant and deliver on their mandates, they should generate knowledge addressing society’s problems.
It will be recalled that as military Head of state in 1984-1985, Universities in Nigeria retrogressed, with the subsidized meals for University students being cut off altogether. Students started cooking their meals with smoky kerosene stoves in halls of residence. Many lecturers were dismissed including University teaching hospitals losing critical to a great purge which signaled the brain drain, with many Nigerian Doctors escaping abroad for greener pastures in an atmosphere of understanding for those remaining.
Ironically, Nigeria’s political class and the very rich go abroad for basic medical treatments, paying hefty sums today in foreign currency, while the hospitals in the country remain derelict, and the politicians refuse to treat simple ailments in them.
Earlier in the year, University of Ibadan Vice Chancellor, Professor Olayinka summoned a stakeholders meeting which was mainly made up of parents to announce the raising of fees from accommodation to clinicals for medical students, because according to him, almost all expected funding from the Federal government had ceased. Students were seen carrying placards in protest, fearing that many of them would drop out due to the unprecedented hike in fees.
