KENE Obiora was one of the six best-graduating students in a class of 34 during his first degree in one of the top universities in Southern Nigeria in the 1990s. His love for academics made him quickly enrol for a master’s degree at his Alma mater after his national youth service programme.
He had the lofty plan of finishing the master’s degree in 18 months. Five years down the line, Kene was yet to conclude the course despite assisting his Thesis Supervisor in invigilating undergraduate examinations and marking scripts among others.
The supervisor, who complained of poor remuneration, according to Kene, was always out of campus “seeking to make ends meet.”
In one of such trips, he misplaced Kene’s hand-written 300-page draft thesis. Confronted, the supervisor remorselessly asked shell-shocked Kene to start afresh.
That was the end of Kene’s master’s degree dream in Nigeria. With the support of family and friends, he got funds and travelled to a western country, enrolled in a university, and concluded the master’s degree programme in 12 months.
Kene is not the only victim of the worsening rot in Nigeria’s education system. The polity is awash with inadequate lecture halls, unavailability of reagents and chemicals for laboratory practicals, and quarters for lecturers. Last month, Vanguard reported ordeals of lecturers, who cannot fuel their cars and now sleep in offices to cut cost.
Public universities and tertiary institutions are prone to industrial actions by teaching and non-teaching staff unions over conditions of service, welfare and provision of infrastructure.
Things would have been different if the education sector had been funded well by succeeding governments in the country. In the last 27 years, the education sector received a cumulative 6.93 percent of the budget, which is far below the recommended benchmarks of Nigeria, the World Bank, and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO.
UNESCO recommends that national and subnational governments should devote 26 per cent of their budgets to education. The World Bank recommends 20 to 30 per cent while Nigeria’s National Policy on Education provides that not less than 26 per cent of Federal and state governments’ budgets should be allocated to education.
Learning in tears
To graduate from some of the universities many students need to go beyond studying. The social media, recently, buzzed with nasty hurdles students have to surmount to defend their thesis and pass their Postgraduate courses.
The tread read thus:
“We had to pay hotel bills for the members of the panel. You could also offer sex, if your supervisor is the devil’s apprentice. Transport money inclusive.” – Erdoo N.
“I decided I’d never have anything else to do with Nigerian universities, the day I saw people defending their master’s dissertation presenting coolers of rice, garden eggs and crates of drinks to their supervisors. I thought someone was getting married.” – Bibian U.
“We were told we’d pay 60k each, for both the entertainment and logistics of the external supervisor.” –Chiamaka O.
“We spent the night prior to my mother’s defense at the University (name withheld), cooking coolers of rice with assorted meat for the lecturers.” – Omekagu.
“We fed the whole department. Paid a prior fee of 2k. Still gave the supervisor gift. This same supervisor then came on one of my Facebook posts to say how I’m too opinionated to get married. I blocked him for my peace of mind. I don’t have strength.” – Sylvia E.
“My husband was so frustrated by his supervisor that he abandoned his MBA and finally got it from a UK university without any sort of bribery.” — Uche N.
“In my school, students have to buy brand new suits for their supervisors.” – Udeh O.
“You need envelopes filled with money for hotel bills, payment to the school, External supervisor’s fee. The only reason I’m still doing it is because I’ve come too far to stop. After Master’s, I’ll never do any schooling in this country again. Never!” – Bello A.
“Some departments will even provide you with a menu and list of people you’ll feed on the day of your thesis defense. I nearly wept for my friend, when one non-teaching staff started dragging her because the meat had finished.” – Esther A.
“Ordinary B.Sc project I defended, my supervisor collected a bag of rice. On the defence day, we went to an eatery and bought food and drinks for all the supervisors in the hall.” – Harrison P.
“We paid 40k each for ‘refreshment’ and ‘honorarium’ during internal defence. We are also going to replicate that amount, if not more, during external defence.” – Êhånanya A.
“My project topic was originally on aquatic snails. My supervisor said I should bring some snails to his house, not even the aquatic snails that I was supposed to be working on. I bought half a bag of land snails for him. A week later, he changed my topic to Catfish and demanded that I buy some catfish and bring them to his house for inspection. I had to do it. I wish he’d asked for rice and drinks like my colleagues were asked. I would have spent less money.” – Ruth D.
“The best thing I ever did for my life and mental health was to abandon my Masters programme halfway. My blood pressure was always high. They killed my zeal to study and do research. Nigerian universities? God forbid!” – Ene P.
“I abandoned my Masters programme because my supervisor wanted to have sex with me. I told him I’m a married woman. He said and I quote, ‘That’s even better! I like them married. If anything happens, we’ll both keep our mouths shut.’ No one listened to my report.” – Annie U.
Picking holes in the above complaints, a senior professor in one of the top five federal universities told Saturday Vanguard: “Go undercover and you discover most of the information you have above are from third parties. Some of these candidates at the postgraduate level cannot provide a researchable topic. If what you have is true, some of us teaching in Nigerian universities wouldn’t be talking about the cost of rice. By tomorrow, I will be examining two students and next week another two. At the moment, I don’t even know how I will transport myself to the exam venue because I have not been paid my salary.
“Nigeria Universities have laws guiding them. Tell the complainants to provide evidence of their extortion and the lecturer involved will be dismissed. I promise you this. In today’s educational system in Nigeria, lecturers are no longer the Alpha and Omega. Students now dictate the tune, especially with the armour of social media. Encourage them to report to the appropriate authorities.”
However, United Kingdom-based public affairs analyst, Mr Obiora Ozonzeadi: said “I totally understand that things are hard back home, and sometimes, don’t blame the lecturers for finding creative ways of adapting to the situation. We need more investment in our educational development to stop all these issues from becoming the norm.”
How Nigeria under-funded education since 1999
In 27 years since 1999, the highest budgetary allocation to the education sector was in 2006 when then President Olusegun Obasanjo earmarked N202.4bn of the N1.88trn budget for education (see table). The figure amounted to 10.77 per cent. At the then-official exchange of N128.50 to a dollar, the education budget was $1.575bn and the entire budget was $14.63bn. Obasanjo was also on record to have made the least allocation to education as observed in his 1.48 per cent of 2003.
Currently, President Bola Tinubu’s 2025 N49.74trn($33.16bn) proposal is being considered by the National Assembly. If approved, the education sector will get 3.52trn($2.347bn) or 7.08 per cent.
A summation of education budgets in the last 27 years shows that the sector has been allocated N16.105trn or 6.93 per cent of the budgeted N232.546trn. Based on official exchange rates at the time of the appropriations, the entire budget is $667.887bn of which education was allocated $49.641bn.
If the government met the 26 per cent recommended benchmark, the sector would have received N60.462trn or $173.65bn.
Given the fact that budgets are hardly implemented effectively with capital projects recording on average 30 per cent implementation, the Education sector arguably did not benefit fully from the N16.105trn budget. The sector would have fared better if it got an additional N44.357trn to hit N60.462trn representing 26 per cent of the 27-year appropriations.
There’s an urgent need to raise education allocation – Lecturers, experts
Speaking on the issue, Professor of Environmental Management & Sustainability in the Department of Geography, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Professor Chidi Nzeadibe, said the poor allocation “is a retrogressive approach to education. Suppose the Nigerian government intends to make progress. In that case, the percentage of the budget for education has to be radically upgraded to meet the UNESCO recommendation because education is key for achieving other Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.
In like manner, Prof Ifeanyi Enete of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Enugu State, lamented that 7.08 percent allocated to education in the 2025 budget “is a far cry from what the sector needs. No country has ever developed above her educational system. The Federal Government is unable to increase the budgetary allocation of education to the UNESCO recommendation of 26 per cent probably because of our debt burden and pressure from other sectors such as defence, health and agriculture.”
However, he said the 7.08 per cent can go a long way if we can take measures like having accurate statistical data on the educational sector to prioritize our needs; creating educational savings bonds; creating a perpetual educational sukuk model; eliminating waste in the system; fighting corrupt leadership and diversion of funds in the system.”
Others include: Introducing education tax and development levy; pumping more intervention funds from the government; increasing scholarships given by federal, state and local governments; getting more donations from endowments and PTAs; and above all, proper and timely implementation needed to yield any good result.
“While we condemn the government’s poor funding of our educational sector, it is our belief that these measures will help boost the system.”
To Dr Sola Adedeji of Ekiti State University, “the allocation of only 7.08 per cent of Nigeria’s N49.74trn budget to education, compared to the 26 per cent recommended by UNESCO and Nigeria’s Education Policy Plan, is woefully inadequate and a significant cause for concern. This allocation reflects the government’s insufficient commitment to education. Last year, the former Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, assured Nigerians that the Tinubu administration would allocate 25 per cent of its 2025 budget to education as part of its Renewed Hope Agenda, improving on the previous paltry 5 per cent. However, we now have a mere 7.08 per cent, which is far below expectations.”
He continued: “This shortfall undermines efforts to enhance educational infrastructure, teacher training, quality assurance, and student support systems, ultimately hampering national development. The Federal Government of Nigeria must prioritize education in its budget planning, gradually increasing the allocation to meet the 26 per cent benchmark over a realistic time frame, such as three to five years. Equally important is ensuring the efficient utilization of allocated resources with transparent and accountable mechanisms to prevent waste and mismanagement.
“Public-private partnerships should be fostered to supplement government funding and address infrastructural deficiencies. In contrast, research funding and support for higher education institutions must be strengthened to spur innovation and global competitiveness. Capacity-building initiatives, such as comprehensive teacher training programs and integration of educational technologies, are essential for improving the quality of education at all levels. Additionally, establishing an Education Endowment Fund could provide scholarships, build schools, and support underprivileged students, fostering inclusivity and access to quality education.
“A deliberate and strategic shift in priorities to elevate the education sector will position Nigeria for sustainable development and global relevance. The government must back its promises with concrete actions to transform the education landscape to benefit the nation’s future.”
On her part, Mrs Ify Evangel Obim, a lecturer in the Department of Library & Information Science, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria, said: “The Federal Government’s allocation of 7.08percent of its N49.74trn budget to education is indeed far from the UNESCO and Nigeria Education Policy plan of 26percent. This disparity is concerning, as education is a critical sector that requires substantial investment to drive national development.”
Noting that the highest allocation to education since 1999 was 10 per cent, which she said fell short of the recommended 26 per cent allocation, she suggested measures to bridge the gap.
Her words: “To bridge this gap, I would advise the Federal Government to consider the following:
“Short-term Strategies—gradually increase the budget allocation to education over the next few years to reach the recommended 26 percent; and ensure that allocated funds are efficiently utilized, focusing on effective implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
“Long-term Strategies— Strengthen the Ministry of Education to enhance its capacity to manage and coordinate education sector resources effectively; foster public-private partnerships to leverage additional resources and expertise for education development; and implement comprehensive education sector reforms to address underlying challenges and improve the quality of education.”
(vanguard)
