Militarization of Education

Typical of the operations of an inherited military culture Nigeria's Minister of Education issued a terse statement sacking and appointing 12 new Vice Chancellors to a few of Nigeria's dysfunctional universities.

All appointments in Nigeria are political and are always viewed from an ethnic slant so it was no surprise a civil rights association pointed out in a statement that "Four of the 12 appointed VC's are from the University of Kano, and that the minister had not only violated laid out rules, but had used his influence to appoint his friends and cronies to these positions, given the Themba ethnic slant of these appointments. Suffice it to say is that they victims, civil groups the media, these universities and minister are going to be embroiled in a needless political debate that takes away from the true objective and mission of these policies to - Teach and graduate first-rate students to secure employment.

It is not clear why Nigeria adopted the policy of using academics as university administrators - something not seen in the developed world - but due to years of military rule and academics new found penchant to enjoy the spoils of war in the manner of appointments. The academic community allowed the invasion of politics into its daily life not only in seeking these appointments, but in playing to the gallery to secure professorships of dubious academic foundation. This has resulted in the military style sweeping appointments of academic staff and Vice Chancellors prone to tribal and national politics and alleged cronyism.

These political Vice Chancellors arrive a campus and then appoint an equally political and divisive gang of Deputy Vice Chancellors all with a retinue of aides who all operate and take actions based on terms in office while giving instructions to a resentful resident academic staff.

Through imbibing a military culture, universities created a body comprised of the VC, DVC, Registrar and a gang of other principal academics called the SENATE, akin to the Military Junta's Supreme Military Council to make decisions for the university. That unlike the Supreme military council that ruled Nigeria in the past where decisions were obeyed per military discipline, these senate meetings are run with academics bandying and speaking in superfluous tongues to impress each other about their intellect without much progress getting achieved.

This dysfunctional misapplication of these academics as administrators, something they are not trained to do, led them to lose the true purpose of their role at the universities. Many students as a result found it extremely hard to obtain transcripts and academic records to further their education overseas, and it was in some cases it was near impossible to track down assigned professors to sign off on finished projects to graduate. Other more rankling problems were the endless verification processes students had to endure to get copies of their certificates and these transcripts after many years.

The academics like the military allowed for gradations of academics by their mindless permission of inequality between academic staff of polytechnics and colleges of education typical of the way the Nigerian Army is treated above not only the Airforce and navy but the prisons, customs and immigration services.

Academics are not entirely to blame for this rot as the military starved these universities of needed funds to improve academic programs and operated parallel military universities which then proceeded to attract academics away from civilian universities. 

The military also adopted the habit of appointing academics to political positions taking them away from the classroom and allowing them take a bogus political leave of absence while their chair remained empty.

The military, the most visible institution in the country, also made a habit of appointing and promoting itself to positions, and an envious academic community wanted a part of it, and the military also began appointing academics to run state electoral commissions further getting academics away from research and further into politics with the unwanted dynamics these incursions and expeditions bequeath the university environment. 

Academics staff are slowly coming round to the fact about their place in society after the exit of the military and the return of professional politicians as governors, commissioners, ministers, heads of agencies etcetera and are now fighting for better renumeration after 16 years of continuous civilian rule.

In debates between ASUU and the Government, one cannot help walk away with the feeling that Nigerian Academics request outlandish renumeration from the government so they can match the renumeration and lifestyle of the military class that displayed ostentatious lifestyles to ignite their counter demands for renumeration.

What the fail to understand is that academia, akin to priesthood, is sometimes a position where you might never be rich, your reward is adoring and loyal students, published, research papers and tenure ship now under siege because they have become pawns of the hiring executive.

It is time for Nigeria to leave academics in the class room to teach and mold the brains of young undergraduates and impart the love of academics, guide them to intellectualism and encourage published scholarly research and discourse.

An ambitious government wishing to restore education to its prominence needs to strongly resist and start a new policy of hiring proven administrators to run universities and attract investments and endowments as practiced in the advanced world. 

A proven business administrator with that mandate will cut out like a cancer the huge administrative costs and political overhead in the administration of these universities. The academics on their part will be insulated from politics and be graded by their ability to impart knowledge.

Most certainly University administrators can be hired and fired at will by governments or their boards if they do not meet business criteria and improve earnings and enrollment. It would also stop the tradition of academic Vice Chancellors’ and Deputy Vice Chancellors from circulating around Nigeria to alien universities then reverting to base to painful obscurity and the attendant obstinacy to current university administrators.

By Terhemba Osuji