By Dele Sobowale

“Recently the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Index on African Governance said Nigeria’s education system is one of the worst in Africa. Do you agree?

That was the question addressed to Professor Ibidapo-Obe, former Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, by Bayo Akinloye of PUNCH. The interview was published on October 25, 2015. Professor Ibidapo-Obe’s answer was as instructive as it was mostly evasive. The reason for the attempt not to accept the conclusions of a study by an organization like Mo Abraham, which has no reason to denigrate Nigeria, is easy to understand. It is difficult for anyone who had been a leading member of a sector of our society to avoid feeling partly responsible for the situation in which Nigeria finds itself.

Some, like Professor Niyi Akinnaso, in the PUNCH of October 20, 2015, seek to distance themselves from their group by adopting a holier than thou attitude. Unfortunately for Niyi, the article appeared in the paper which Governor Aregbesola had singled out as the one guiltiest of what Niyi was writing about. Niyi did more damage to himself by pointing out the inaccuracies attributed to the media without acknowledging that “Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed”, said I.F Stone. Niyi needs to be more skeptical with officials.

Ibidapo-Obe’s reaction was more subtle. He started out by stating that “I know that the Nigerian education system is not up to scale.” Then he went on to state that “But given the background that I am coming from and my international exposure, I do not agree with the Mo Ibrahim’s ranking of Nigeria’s education on the continent.” First of all, he failed to tell us specifically why he disagreed with the score card. Second, he neglected to point to another report which contradicts Mo Ibrahim and supports his position. Third he never told us who conducted that study.

Along the way there was a vital revelation which supports Mo Ibrahim. According to the Professor, “Perhaps this was aggregated and the per capita education index is the lowest in Africa.”    Obe, for short, is not an economist, but one need not be to understand that in the struggle of nations with illiteracy, money is the first weapon that must be made sufficiently available. His further contention that “We have first class man-power in Nigeria and some reasonable infrastructure in our universities” sound convincing, but in reality, as a Chancellor in a Nigerian university, it is understandable that he ignores the fact that the “first-class manpower” and “reasonable infrastructure” is spread thin.

First class manpower

Nothing reveals the sad state of our universities in Nigeria better than the latest QS World Universities Rankings. First, no single Nigerian university made the top 700 in the world – not U.I, not Unilag, not Unilorin, not ABU, not UNN. Meanwhile, eighteen African universities made the list – nine from South Africa, five from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania each had one university listed. Of what use is the “first-class” manpower and “reasonable infrastructure” if we cannot compete with African countries in providing global standard education? Is the “Giant of Africa” supposed to be classified with Burundi and Sao Tome in terms of quality of education?

And to further contradict himself, Obe went on to admit that “our education system suffers from poor and unattractive    infrastructure at the primary school level….secondary schools lack laboratories and libraries….no quality assurance of delivery of the curriculum with teachers that will rather be working elsewhere than be a teacher”. In a few sentences, mostly true, Obe had confessed that Nigeria sends ill-prepared kids from primary school to secondary schools and compounds the original crime against the kids, by sending to universities secondary school graduates who elsewhere would not be considered fit for admission. It is all a conspiracy which produces the largest collection of human beings destitute of the basic benefits of good education and totally unemployable.

Watching CNN, one is struck by the number of countries advertising for foreign investments on the basis of their world class educated manpower from primary to university level. Which level can Nigeria advertise as its own success story in order to attract investments? That explains why most Foreign Direct Investments in Nigeria are aimed at products and services which are capital-intensive. They skim the cream of our educated people and leave us the dregs unemployed. As one manager told me, we don’t want a lot of people difficult to train. That was a polite way of saying we don’t want your dullards on our hands.

Finally, Obe might not realize it; but, the kids in schools are the “lucky” ones. Today, over 12 million Nigerian school age kids are out of school. That is the largest population of illiterates anywhere in the world. Incidentally, the population of kids out of school was less than two million before the oil boom which started in 1973. Now the Age of Oil is over. On the forgotten 12 million, Federal, State and Local Governments spend ZERO naira on education. That is larger than the populations of Gambia and Mauritius put together. For the unfortunate 12 millions, good things might come for others, if we accept Obe’s prescriptions. But, for them, the Nigerian heaven is empty. Why not face the truth?