By Shina Abubakar

OSOGBO—THE Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah has described lecturers in Nigeria’s university system as dictators who suppress students’ potential.

He also disclosed that no university in the country has attained a world-class status as most ivory towers have failed to impact the destiny of the nation like universities in Europe and the United States of America.

Delivering the 13th convocation lecture of Fountain University in Osogbo, at the weekend, Professor Na’Allah, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics, Professor Aishat Sanni, said the system treats students as slaves rather than customers who should be respected.

His words: “The Nigerian university system has installed a dictator and authoritarian lecturer system, where the lecturer is always right! Students are like servants and must accept whatever is dotted out to them. Students do not assess lecturers largely in our system, and the Nigerian university does not dignify the student, and treat him or her as a respected human being.

“From comments I have always received as a Vice-Chancellor and discussions I have shared with colleague Vice-Chancellors over the years in Nigeria, students feel they will pay dearly if they ever challenge their grades, or refuse sexual advances from a lecturer. Nigeria’s University system does not treat students well, from extreme to worst, even the private Universities that claim so much to be of World Class status, force students to a particular creed, force certain ways on them, and decree tastes they must have and when they sleep and “what songs they sing.”