Problems of and solutions to Nigerian postgraduate education
What you wrote about the attitude of university lecturers is true, and in fact very charitable for in truth, in many respects, the situation on ground is much worse. The fact of the matter is that the Nigerian educational system has no room for inquiry, experimentation and rigorous analysis. It has no room for independent thinking, for arguing against the conventional and for developing confidence in the self.
I remember vividly the case of a physics teacher during our “A” levels who was trying to explain the concept of acceleration, in particular the notion of per second, per second and he couldn’t make the class understand. After about twenty minutes of trying, he ended the lesson by saying frustratingly, “Look, this is what I was taught and that is what it is; you just remember it so that we can make progress!”
Many of our classmates just laughed it away; only few were intelligent enough to understand the implication of that lecturer’s action, but they had nowhere to turn to and complain. And this was 1975.
As democracy thrives in Nigeria, new definitions would continue to be added to existing English words or phrases and their usage in Nigeria.In technical and general terms, padding refers to ‘extraneous text added to a message for the purpose of concealing its beginning, ending or length’. Based on the events that unfolded during deliberations of the 2016 budget proposal by members of the Nigerian House of Representatives early this year, ‘budget padding’ as conceived by its creators denotes ‘increasing the budget proposal larger than the actual estimates proposed for projects’.
Recent claims and counter claims emerging from the House of Representatives over the 6-months-old case of budget padding, nonetheless, suggest some propositions. It reflects a sustained abuse of public trust and confidence by those elected to serve the overall and collective interest of Nigerians.
President MuhammaduBuhari said throughout his public service career as a military governor, petroleum minister, military Head of State and chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, he never heard of the phrase ‘budget padding’. Because the executive arm was, from the onset, made to look as if it were responsible for the discrepancies uncovered in the 2016 budget proposal, President MuhammaduBuharivowed while
Thus, it is very common today to ask students who vigorously enquire to please shut up and allow the class “to make progress” (oh, how I hate such exhortations)!
However, my concern is with those other lecturers who are diligent and hardworking but whom the system emasculates. I can spend hours writing on this but let me restrict myself to three incidences to highlight the problem. First, students are so used to being told what to do and what to write that most of them would not enquire and learn on their own. Well, what do you expect from a graduate student who receives his lessons via dictation by his lecturer for him to copy?
So any lecturer who insists on rigour hits a wall with both the students and his fellow lecturers. He is petitioned against, and those in authority rarely bother to listen to his side of the story, but rule against him. Even those administrators who listen they dither when the result is out and more students fail than pass. This is aggravated by the mounting number of students who have to retake the course and made unacceptable when some of the students have powerful parents or guardians.
Second, the library system in addressing the Nigerian community in Riyadh during his state visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that ‘culprits will not go unpunished’. Soon after his return to Nigeria, President Buhari sacked the Director-General of the Budget Office, YahayaGusauwho was only six months in office and immediately replaced him with the incumbent, TijjaniAbdullahi.
Nigerians were reminded10 days ago that the controversies about 2016 budget padding is not over when HonourableAbdulmumuniJubril (APC, Kano) who was hitherto the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, was on Thursday July 21, 2016 relieved of his position. The following day, Abdulmumini reacted to his sack by opening a can of worms on the padding of the 2016 budget, implicating the Speaker, Mr. YakubuDogara, in the padding controversy that involves over N40 billion. He accused Dogara of not only collecting bribes from MDAs but also masterminding the entire padding of the 2016 budget.
Given Abdulmumini’spast and present account of the budget padding controversy, his recent allegations against the Speaker remainsuspicious and cynical. When the padding of the 2016 budget became public knowledge early in the year, Abdulmumini declared as chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation that the executive arm was accountable. Nigeria is pathetic. I can say with little fear of doubt or contradiction that our secondary school library (1969-1973) was better equipped than most current universities’ libraries. Not only that, there is hardly any library in the country that has inter-library requisition or loan system in place.
Ironically, instead of the information age assisting greatly in scholarship, it actually detracts it in Nigeria. This is because the systems allows for blatant plagiarism. Many students given simply go to the internet and download [other people’s work], append their names and viola, they have fulfilled their duty! And they get away with it either because the lecturers simply couldn’t be bothered or because they don’t know better for that is how they acquired their qualifications too.
So, again, if one insists on doing the right thing he is labelled as harsh, wicked or sadistic. I remember vividly a student telling his lecturer (who was a senior lecturer) that what he was asked to do was not done by professor so and so.He was right. Professor so and so doesn’t do that, but he was wrong to assume professor so and was right.
Where else in the world would Now that the House has turned its earlier claims against him, he is saying that the padding was done by the leadership of the House. Why, thus, should Abdulmumini want us to believe his allegations against Dogara?
The leadership of the House has challenged Representative Abdulmumin to show evidence of complicity of the Speaker, YakubuDogara and others in the padding of the 2016 budget. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been invited by House leadership to investigateAbdulmuminiJibrin since his chairmanship of the Finance Committee in the 7th Assembly.The Speaker through his counsel has also given Abdulmumini 7 days within which to retract his allegations or face legal actions.
AbdulrazakNamdas, Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, explained that Abdulmumini’sremoval was based on ‘sundry acts of misconduct, incompetence, total disregard for his colleagues and abuse of the budgetary processes’. Namdas further said Abdulmumini ‘was found not to be fit and proper to hold such a sensitive office which exposes him to high officials of government at all levels.’ As Chairman of Appropriations Committee, ‘it became evident’ said Namdas ‘that he does not possess the temperament and maturity you find a university system where once one is a professor (never mind how he got there) then that person is above the academic law and could do what he damn well pleases, literarily?
Finally, the university system in Nigeria has no self-regulating mechanism. Lecturers are rule onto themselves and woe be tide the student who demands his right or even asks for an explanation. Like you wrote, lecturers look at students’ works at their convenience and pleasure and there is no way of making them behave, except for the few students who have powerful parents or guardians either in the form of other senior colleagues or political appointees.
It is very common to see lecturers concentrate all their classes in the last couple of weeks or so to the end of the semester. Lecturers spend most of their time doing things other than their statutory duties, and the system tolerates this and even abets it by lack of regular power and very poor library system.
The conventional wisdom in Nigerian tertiary education is that a lecturer is only expected on campus if he has a lecture to deliver, thereafter he is on his own. To make matters worse ASUU would side with their own against the student. I remember a case of a lecturer who was asked to head a committee on examination malpractice in the university, whose report pointed out that examination malpractice is not only limited to students but extends to lecturers too, and suggested sanctions for such erring lecturers. Yes, you guessed right: the report never saw the daylight.Local ASUU made sure of that. required for such a high office’. To justify Abdulmumini’s sack, Namdasaddedthat Abdulmumini’s misconduct include the ‘insertion of MuhammaduBuhari Film Village project in his constituency in Kano State’. Namdas again said it was characteristic of Abdulmumin to go about asking members to recommend projects for him to help them include in the budget.
One question for Namdas and his colleagues is, if AbdulmuminiJibrin is actually culpable and is as irresponsible as all the charges leveled against him suggest, why and how come all the 360 members in the House failed to stop the padded budget from being passed? Abdulmumini alone couldn’t have passed the 2016 budget in its padded form. If they claim to be unaware, then, that alone is an indictment for dereliction of their statutory function as lawmakers who should study, analyze and deliberate every bill including appropriation before passing it.
Following the current dirty allegations of budget padding in the House of Representatives, former President OlusegunObasanjo has reiterated his earlier position in 2012 that ‘rogues andarmed robbers filled the legislature’. Fielding questions recently from State House correspondents after meeting privately with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Obasanjo said ‘the institution stinks’.
Namdaswas so obsessed to exuberantly defend the Speaker that he became sentimentally determined to use some sections of the country’s 1999 constitutionto justify (rightly or wrongly) Dogara’s indulgence in the same ‘sin’ of budget padding over
In conclusion the task of correcting the tertiary educational system in Nigeria is enormous and requires multi-prong approach. The starting place is the senior secondary school, and this is where new graduating students from foreign universities can be of enormous help if given the chance. In other words employ such graduates and put them on the same pedestal as their colleagues in the universities with the option of transferring their services to the university after 3 to 5 years.
Secondly establish an ombudsman system for the universities where complaints can be made and addressed promptly.
Thirdly, part of the government’s agreement with ASUU should include the establishment of a self-regulating system that will ensure lecturers do not take undue advantage of their students.
Fourthly, make it mandatory for TETFUND to set aside at least 15% of its disbursements towards making tertiary libraries alive.
Finally, and perhaps more importantly, a system should be evolved where plagiarism in any form is seriously sanctioned and widely publicised. The case of some universities subscribing to Turn-It-In © and grading levels of plagiarism as acceptable/tolerable or not should be done away with totally.
There should be ZERO tolerance for ALL forms of plagiarism. Here is to hoping we’ll live long enough to see that day. After all, the academic status of India of the early 1970’s is not the same as that of today.
AA Muhammad-Oumar can be reached at aamoumar@gmail.com which Abdulmumini was sacked. Namdas said that the proposal which the executive submitted was mere estimate as stipulated in Section 81 (1). ‘It is obvious’, he rationalized, ‘that the constitution uses the word estimates advisedly. It is therefore an exhibition of crass ignorance, abuse of language, outright mischief and or blackmail for a legislator, especially one who chaired the Appropriations Committee to use the word padding to describe the action of parliament on the budget’.
Arguing further, Namdas said ‘the removal, introduction of projects or the amendment of Mr. President’s estimates in the Appropriation Bill cannot be construed as an act of corruption or impropriety because it is at the core of appropriation powers of the National Assembly as aptly enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. It is therefore clear, that no crime or wrong doing can be legitimately imputed on the actions or conduct of Mr. Speaker, the leadership or members of the House of Representatives before, during and after the passage of the 2016 Appropriation Bill’. Is this not ‘vindication of a suspect by another suspect according to the laws of Namdas?’
These revelations over the 2016 budget padding are a consequence of the prayers of wronged Nigerians whose interest, trust and confidence are daily betrayed by their leaders. Our politicians are unnecessarily taking the collective intelligence of Nigerians for granted. May Allah (SWT) continue to guide President Buhari in his fight against corruption as we also pray that He (SWT) exposes and shame all corrupt public officers, amin.
Budget padding: Claims and counter claims