Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has affirmed the determination of his administration to provide enabling learning environment to enhance teaching and learning in schools in the state.
The governor in an address on the occasion of the third Convocation Lecture of the Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, assured that his administration would continue to support tertiary institutions in the state to nurture quality graduates to actualize socio-economic development of the country.
He assured the university that the road leading to the institution would be reconstructed to ensure easy movements to and from the school, adding that education is one of the main thrust of his administration.
In a convocation lecture titled; “Education in Nigeria: Whither Good Governance,” the governor of Sokoto State, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, regretted that under the world’s top 800 universities ranking released in July 2015 that only one Nigerian University, University of Ibadan made list of first 1000 universities, placing it in the 601 position, while in African ranking, out of the top 10universities, South Africa picks 6, Egypt 2, leaving Nigeria and Kenya with one slot each. According to him, under the 2015 university web ranking of top 100 universities in Africa, South Africa again picked 5 and a total of 18 on the list while Nigeria only picks with the best in 31st position, among others.
Tambuwal represented by a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Uzo Azubike, observed that this state of affairs is frightening and raises doubt as to whether any Nigerian university can make the world’s top1000 subsequently.
According to him, for any university to aspire for the top, certain basics such as quality academic staff, quality infrastructure both academic and recreational, quality students and management, funding and good governance and leadership must be in place.
In his words, “it is important at this point to state categorically that even where all the other basics are present but in the hands of an inept leadership or put differently, subjected to bad governance, no positive result can be realized.”
The immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, noted that funding also constitutes a serious challenge to educational development in Nigeria, especially tertiary education which is capital intensive.
He added that statistics from the Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that between 1960 and 2013 that the percentage of total national budget allocation to education ranged from the lowest of 0.53% in 1971 to the highest of 17.59% in 1997 with an annual average of less than 7%.
He concluded, “Once we are able to attain these, the Nigerian tertiary education system should before long return to winning ways of producing Nobel laureates, intellectual wizards and schools of international repute here on our shores.”
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Very Rev. Professor Christian Anieke outlined some of the programmes that ushered in the convocation which included cultural display to promote the people’s cultural heritage, holy mass among others. He used the occasion to plead to the state government to reconstruct the road leading to the university.
