By Dele Sobowale

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Yogi Bera, American comedian, 1970s. “Numerous are the streams that lead to social prosperity; but all spring from the same source and that is public education.” Gasper Jovellanos, 1744-1811. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 46).

AND, at the top of public education is the university or tertiary institution. That Nigerian education is in shambles is no longer debated; that most of our universities turn out graduates unfit for employment is no longer news. The most alarming aspect of all these is the fact that governments – Federal and States – don’t appear to give a damn about it. One example will be sufficient to illustrate the point. But for the awkward bail-out arranged by the Federal Government recently, some states, including those governed by the APC, owed university staff up to seven months salaries and entitlements.

Yet, they expected world class performance from their starving staff as those of Harvard or Oxford University whose emoluments are assured. Self-deceit has become our national characteristic when it comes to university education. But the most urgent question now is: can we expect change and how soon? The depressing answers are: not bloody likely and not very soon.

Ask anybody in Nigeria, including those who worked in the All Progressives Congress, APC, campaign office at Abuja what is the content of the change agenda with regard to university education; and you will receive a blank stare. The truth is nobody knows; and, more disturbing nobody seems to worry that education, being the foundation of any positive change, has not received the attention it deserves.

Back in 2011, when Buhari ran for the presidency under the banner of Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, I worked for him. In fact, I produced a very small document, which summarized what I thought could constitute the content of change in some key sectors of Nigerian society including education. Although the outline was presented to Buhari’s campaign managers, at the time, I never had the opportunity to brief the candidate himself. And, I did most of the work at my own expense – including traveling to Abuja.

The reader should not get me wrong. I am not vain enough to assume that the suggestions were perfect. But, at least they addressed the situation as at 2011, the trends I thought will emerge and suggestions regarding how to make improvements. Nobody else brought anything to the campaign except noise about “CHANGE” – whatever that meant.

The marriage of strange bedfellows which produced the APC in 2014, brought with it the Action Congress of Nigeria, CAN, which I know has a lot of cerebral individuals who could draw up blueprints on anything under the sun – education included. So, with those people in the fold, I relaxed – confident that the contents of the change programme would have been worked out; or, at least, would be formalized by election time.

But, as we moved closer to the 2015 Presidential elections, it was becoming clear to me that Nigerians were being asked to vote for undefined change in all aspects of our lives – education included. In June 2014, writing a two-part series in this paper, titled IS APC THE ANSWER? I had raised the issue of the alliance which produced the APC and how several of those forming the coalition have the different ideas about governance which had not been resolved.

The battle in the Senate had thrown into clear relief that the APC is not only a house divided against itself, it s a house built with sand and sputum.    I started that article on APC by informing our readers about what late British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, said about alliances. “Alliances are held together by fear not by love.” (VBQ p 9). And quite often there is usually mutual suspicion. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, provided the fear element.

Almost all of them were afraid that their political obituaries would be written if Jonathan was re-elected. In the manic urge to form a winning team, none stopped to think of post-election governance and how to keep the team united. Today, the APC exists only on paper and most likely will disintegrate before 2019. Meanwhile the contents of the changer programme remain unknown. More worrisome, it is unclear who is addressing the numerous issues begging for urgent solutions which the university education sector presents.

This is September, and most universities will soon resume for the first semester. The students will return to the same under-funded institutions, the palavers over JAMB placement of students, cut-off points for admission, UMTE, school fees to be paid, corruption (sex for grades, sexual harassment, rapes, cash and carry examination results etc) on campus remain untouched and there is really nobody in charged.