BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE
FORMER President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has called for a holistic solution to the recurring crisis in the tertiary education.

Reacting to Tuesday’s resolution of the six-month industrial action embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Agbakoba feared that the crisis might recur in 24 months time when the government reneges on the terms of agreement as usual.
Hinging enduring solution to the crisis on privatisation of the institutions with the government offering grants to indigent students and getting banks to give out education loans, he said the problem was systemic.

President Goodluck Jonathan (left); ASUU Vice President, Mr. Biodun Ogunyemi Onabanjo (2nd right); Vice President Namadi Sambo (2nd left) and ASUU President, Nasir Faggae (right) during the meeting.

Agbakoba  said: “The time has come for us to have a debate on the education crisis. I hope it comes up at the National Assembly.
“The issue is not ASUU’s problem. It is a question of a failed state. In military parlance, we are in a low grade civil war. Everything has decayed.
“Now, N200 billion has been deposited with the Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, ASUU has returned to the classes. In two years if government defaults in the agreement what happens?
“We have to attack the problem systematically. The problem has to be tackled diagnostically not problematically.
“The problem in Nigeria is the failure of the component parts to agree on ideology. As a left of the person, I understand the issue.
“If I were the President, I will create a model that sees to it that government will be removed from operating any aspect of the Nigerian economy, especially education.
“Anybody who wants to float a university can do so provided he meets the requirements of the National Universities Commission, NUC.