“Have you watched Titanic before but haven’t seen such a ship with your eyes, then get set to visit OAU,” a student of Obafemi Awolowo University wrote in a Nigerian discussion forum some months ago. He was right about that. The university will have a new Senate building in a few months. The new structure, which is currently under construction, is not only massive but stylish. It is designed and is being built to look like a yacht.
The students of the institution have expressed serious concerns and criticized, at different times, why such an expensive and non-expedient project should be embarked upon, when there are many other serious problems, including lack of good hostels, laboratories and lecture theatres affecting the institution. But the response given by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution, Olanrewaju Abiodun to aggrieved people late last year was that “They are saying we are building new senate, it is being sponsored by [the] federal government.”
Earlier this month, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) quizzed the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Adebiyi Daramola over an allegation of misappropriation of fund. This has plunged the institution to a restive moment. As a result of this crisis, FUTA has remained under locks and keys amid protests by worker unions. This highlights serious concerns over the financial prudence of university administrations. Before now, we almost never heard of anti-graft bodies probing university officials.
On Saturday, during the 32nd convocation of the University of Ilorin, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented at the event by the Deputy Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Chinedu Mafiana, told the participants that the era of wasteful spending in Nigeria’s tertiary institution is over.
It is good that the president might have successfully sent his message to universities and other tertiary institutions, but there is also an urgent need for the federal government to institutionalize efficient financial checks and balances to curb wasteful spending.
Buhari categorized spending outside the basic mandate of the institution–which is in the areas of learning, research and community development–as extravagant and wasteful. Much more than this, priorities need to be set while expending the limited resources available to these institutions. Before the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), very little was done by the government to demand accountability from the leadership of tertiary institutions.
This does not, in any way support government’s encroachment on the autonomy of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. In fact, it is important to note that autonomous academic institutions breed meritocracy, which in turn breeds better quality leadership in most spheres, including the financial administration.
Apparently, the advantages of autonomy in Nigerian universities are so many. Notwithstanding, financial autonomy without checks and balances anywhere tends to promote opacity, which would encourage corruption. This has been the situation in many public universities in Nigeria.
Buhari also mentioned the importance of proper communication between students and management to enable both parties interact, dialogue and consult freely. Unfortunately, this culture has not been in vogue in Nigerian universities; the management either see student unions as bodies that unnecessarily question their decisions or a student movement that empowers students to go beyond their ‘boundary’. This is not supposed to be so.
In the reality of a truly autonomous university system, where the government has limited involvement in schools’ operations, representatives of Students’ Unions can be included in the administration of Nigerian universities. This way, they are in the know-how of the money coming into these schools and how they are appropriated to relevant projects.
Students are major stakeholders in the universities, after all, without students, there won’t be a university. Student leaders are in turn responsible to their colleagues who demand accountability from them, and ensure their representatives at the university administration level are not bought over.
This model of check and balance has not been explored in Nigeria and it is good we embrace it at this crucial time. As long as there are no proper and efficient financial checks in university management, the vicious corruption cycle will persist, university officials will continue to embezzle, misappropriate and waste funds and they will get away with it since there is no empowered body within the system to question their actions.
