By Kelechukwu Iruoma

Education has often been described as a panacea for the growth and development of the society. Education is the very fulcrum in which the society revolves. Quality education entails availability of qualified lecturers that can impart positively on students, availability of equipment for learning, conducive environment for learning, among others. These are what Nigerian tertiary institutions must have in order to lay claim to quality education.

File photo: Dilapidated school

Nigerian institutions are known to lack some of these basic amenities mentioned due to lack of funding and support from government, NGOs, corporate institutions and bodies.

Despite the dilapidated structures, lack of qualified teachers, bad environment for learning, institutions in Nigeria have been able to overcome the challenges that befall them by making sure, to an extent, that their students are provided with necessary materials, equipment and resources needed to restore the dignity of man.

Till date, the situation has not changed and questions have been raised in conferences as to which methods can be used by institutions to get the necessary equipment, facilities and financial support needed to be better.

Interest has, however, been turned to graduates of various institutions as a means of solving the never ending problems.

Having passed through the tutelage of the alma mater, which has apparently led to their success, it is pertinent for the alumni to form an association, which will be an avenue where funds can be generated for the institutions, so as to keep the institution in good shape.

It is, therefore, unfortunate to see graduates who are sucessful in Nigeria and diaspora not to go back to their various institutions to assist in the infrastructural development, as well as intervention in other issues peculiar to their alma mater. This is why vice chancellors and rectors of institutions during events call on their alumni to remember their alma mater in order to move the institutions forward.

According to the National Universities Commission, for an institution to keep being funded by the government, institutions must generate at least 10% of the revenue given to them by the government. How can institutions meet this requirement given by the NUC?

The alumni of institutions can actually assist in generating funds and meet, if not all, some of the financial challenges that the institutions face, in order to keep the institutions afloat.

This is why institutions in Nigeria have taken steps to have a good relationship with their alumni because they see their alumni as important stakeholders in the institutions’ enterprise. Through constructive ideas and generation of funds, they contribute immensely in infrastructural development and also ensuring the prevalence of a peaceful and conducive atmosphere for the functioning of the institutions.

Institutions in the course of time have produced prominent and highly achieving graduates in virtually all spheres of life. It is pertinent for them to pay the institutions back by fellowshipping with the institutions in order to keep their alma mater in good stead in the unending desire to restore the dignity of the institutions.

Alumni, on the other hand should criticize their institutions for not treating them well while in school and that is why neglect their alma mata talk more of assisting the institutions to find solutions to problems confronting the institutions. Institutions are being faulted for making learning very difficult for students, that is why some of them claim that is why they come out with grade points that are not encouraging.

Also, lecturers in various departments are known to always frustrate their students due to the fact that some students are not able to meet the demands they request for which may be to pay to pass their courses or to request for sex from female students, which is a norm in our education sector. These wicked acts by lecturers damage the image of the departments and the institutions.

Remembering alma mater

Lecturers sometimes put students in a state of turmoil and confusion, thereby making it difficult for students to succeed in their academics. Some lecturers think it all ends in the classroom. But, it does not. When students now succeed in the labour market, they tend not to remember their alma mater. They decide to pay the school back.

Lecturers should also remember that they might end up needing the help of students who they think will not succeed in the labour market based on the bad grades they graduate with from the institutions. Lecturers should note that they have children who might have dreams of becoming great in future. The students that the lecturers did bad too might end up destroying the ambitions of the lecturers children and relatives.

Institutions should, however, note that one of the major reasons why alumni fail to impart on the development of the institutions is that kind of treatment given to these graduates while they were in school, most especially by lecturers.

There is the need for institutions to find ways to curb the problems by encouraging lecturers to treat students well. If the institution is benefiting from the alumni, the departments and the lecturers will also benefit from them. So there is need for students to be treated well.

Alumni should establish associations where they can come together at intervals to raise fund for the institutions and assist the institutions in its endeavours so that the institutions can move to where it is supposed to move to. Though, their institutions have treated them in ways they do not like. They should remember too that the institutions have also sacrificed a lot for their sake.

Alumni should see it as a responsibility to always also assist the departments from which they graduated from because it is the departments, through the lecturers, have made them who they have become today. If you must build a house, you must lay the foundation. The departments are the foundations for which the success of the alumni revolves.

It is, therefore, important for every management of institutions to build a cordial relationship with their alumni and to also see them as important stakeholders in the business of the institutions. With this, institutions will evidently benefit from the goodwill and benefactions of a considerable number of her prominent alumni.