UI SECURITY DISCOURSE: WHAT NIGERIA SHOULD LEARN

Oludayo Tade writes that the country should invest more in security studies and harvest the existing ones

Nigeria is a country that seems to have refused to benefit from the abundant security educational resources within its space. Rather than using research conducted by scholars in different areas of national development, successive government continues to engage in capital flight by outsourcing security researches and policy briefs to foreigners. Why will a country like Nigeria not care to benefit from the numerous and impactful researches conducted in Nigerian universities? The country’s insecurity profile has continued to rise because research evidence has not been put to use. That over 200 Chibok girls were abducted four years ago and the 110 girls in Dapchi, Yobe State show a leadership culture that has refused to learn from history. There is a nexus between sound education and (in)security and great countries of the world invest in their educational institutions to conduct researches that will drive development. Unfortunately Nigeria prides itself as importer of Tokunbo knowledge and policies. Our leaders ignore homegrown quality researches, ends up utilising what late renowned Sociologist, Akinsola Akiwowo calls Igbinkungbi (inappropriate knowledge/policies) with little or no results. The desire to end security problems in Nigeria will benefit from researches conducted by scholars in Nigeria in general and University of Ibadan in her 70 years of birthing.

Since its founding in 1948, the premier university has continued to play leadership roles in manpower development, research and community development. With 410 professors, 120 readers, 402 senior lecturers and 335 lecturer I, 196 lecturer II and 61 assistant lecturers, the UI occupies the front seat as the flagship of postgraduate research and training in sub-Saharan Africa. Producing her first doctoral student in Zoology (Dr Sanya Onabamiro) in 1952, UI now attracts over 16,000 applicants for PG programmes admitting a little above one-third of this; no thanks to infrastructural limitations.

Its internationalisation drive is not in doubt with over 327 foreign students being tutored in globally relevant courses. In particular, UI has engaged security discourses through its many postgraduate programmes and interdisciplinary discourses which bring the town to gown in order to dissect Nigeria’s problems. UI has an Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies; offers Masters in Strategic Studies; Forensic studies, Criminology and Development studies in Sociology and Criminal Psychology. In UI, I have read researches that have probed into many troubled waters in which Nigeria swims: terrorism, kidnapping, Fulani herdsmen and farmers’ clashes, electronic fraud in banks, unemployment, corruption, crimes and criminality and early warning signs of conflicts, among others.

Till date, the Postgraduate School, UI has organised over 60 Interdisciplinary discourses which gained more strength when the current Vice-Chancellor, Prof Idowu Olayinka held sway at the PG school as dean. During the tenure of Professor Adeyinka Aderinto, the immediate past dean of the postgraduate school, and the incumbent Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), current Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau was invited and presented a paper on “Education, Security and National Development”. In his engagement with the title, Dambazau noted the intersection saying “education is a source of security; security is a prerequisite for development and development guarantees security”. Dambazzau further noted that in the “current knowledge-driven global economy, no country can achieve sustainable development without adequate investment in education, especially higher education”.

Section 18 of the 1999 Constitution provides for an educational policy that is directed towards ensuring equal and adequate educational opportunities for all, including free education at all levels. How can we therefore ensure equal opportunities when students attend schools with fear of being kidnapped and taken away in waterways in south-western Nigeria or girls abducted as terrorism pawn in north-eastern Nigeria? Again Dambazau stressed that “the activities of these terrorists are affecting not only the tertiary education sector but whole of Nigerian education sector. What, he asks “is our response to ensuring that our children are not denied access to education under any circumstance, including threat of terrorism? What is the fate and educational future of thousands of our children trapped in IDP camps spread in the northeast?” I add; what do we do to the burgeoning new orphans and the vulnerable arising from Fulani herdsmen aggression? Without secured education, there cannot be secured future for Nigeria.

It is instructive to state that higher education is central to driving the desired social change by a serious government. The vision of UI is to be a ‘world class institution for academic excellence geared towards meeting societal needs’. Its mission is to “expand the frontiers of knowledge, transforming society through creativity and innovation, producing graduates that are worthy in character and in learning and serve as a vehicle for conveying societal values”. For seven decades, the university has set up courses to diagnose security problems and develop solutions that strengthen human and national security systems. All these studies, which have been published and available online, do not appeal to our leadership because they hardly read. Instead ineffective committees are set up to examine remote and immediate causes of what has been researched! Also, many of these programsme are being stunted by insufficient investment in education by government.

Unfortunately, top captains of industry and politicians are products of Nigeria’s first generation universities; UI in particular. Dambazau’s lecture is one of the many interventions the premier university makes to security discourses. At 70, UI PG School needs support from its alumni and patronage from Nigeria government. It is not palatable that UI does not have a post-doctoral fellowship to attract scholars globally. While candidates’ quest for postgraduate university education continues to rise geometrically due to increasing unemployment, education as a catalyst for national development has not been given the deserved attention. Incidentally, President Muhammadu Buhari is a few years older than University of Ibadan and should make the difference. Methinks he should partner with the University in driving his policies and programmes. Now in the saddle, Dambazau as Interior Minister must ensure security of education communities. While Nigeria has a lot to learn from security studies in UI, it cannot stifle funds in (tertiary) education and expect to solve her security problems. It must not only invest in education and security studies at UI, harvesting the pools of existing studies may be a step in the right direction in taking Nigerian away from being lazy importers of Tokunbo misfit policies to one driven by homegrown knowledge transformation policies.