By Aare Afe Babalola

APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS OF COUNCIL: Having served as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Lagos, I find it rather convenient to use that university as a reference point. Article l(i)(a)-(i) of the University of Lagos Act makes provisions for a 23-member Council of the University.

These members include the pro-chancellor, the vice chancellor, the deputy vice-chancellor, 12 persons representing a variety of interests, four persons appointed by the Senate from among members of that body, one person each appointed by congregation and convocation from among the respective members of those bodies, the directors-general of the Federal Ministries of Finance and Education, or, in their absence, any members of their ministries as the ministers may designate.

The most interesting aspect of the composition of the governing council relates to the appointment of the 12 persons who are supposed to represent a variety of interests. However, what most governments at the state and federal levels do is to appoint people based on political considerations. There have been reported cases of Council Members requesting either contracts or even cash for members of their constituencies in the belief that they were appointed to serve the interests of the said constituencies and not the institution itself.

However, to allow councils to function, members must be assured of the certainty of their tenure. This entails the immediate composition of council as and when required. The situation in which government will fail or refuse to constitute the governing councils of universities for several months is not one that augurs well for proper administration and accountability. Government must also do away with the habit of arbitrary dissolution of councils before the expiration of their tenures.

Each council has a tenure guaranteed by law. However, it is now fashionable for a new government to dissolve councils the moment it takes power so as to be able to appoint its own cronies or political loyalists into the councils as a means of reward for their support in the electoral process. Aside from the fact that this development is retrogressive and does not portray Nigerian universities in good light, it also discourages well-meaning Nigerians from accepting to serve on university governing councils. Who, after all will be willing to accept such an appointment when he is likely, before the expiration of his tenure, to face the indignity of having the dissolution of Council of which he is a member announced on the media without any prior notice and without even the simplest appreciation or acknowledgement of services rendered by him.

To bring about a lasting solution to the problem, I suggest that the process of appointment into governing councils be made an exclusive affair of universities. A system should be put in place in which members of council will be elected by the university community. This will ensure the ability of the governing councils to formulate growth policies and strategies for the university without undue governmental influence. This is the practice in the United Kingdom.

The 1997 UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of higher education teaching personnel contains an elaborate elucidation of the university autonomy. It defines autonomy in the following words: “Autonomy is that degree of self-governance necessary for effective decision making by institution of higher education regarding the academic work, standard, management and related activities consistent with systems of public accountability, especially in respect of funding provided by the state and respect for academic freedom and human right.

Again, autonomy is the institutional form of academic freedom; a necessary precondition to guarantee the proper fulfillment of the functions entrusted to higher education teaching personnel and institutions.” It places an obligation on countries to protect higher institutions from threats to their autonomy coming from any source. 

In America and Europe, universities enjoy almost complete autonomy in (i) academic freedom, independence and freedom to select staff, students, chairs of governing councils, including visitors and pro-chancellors who were elected by staff, students and other stake-holders. (ii) Procedural self-governance which means independence and freedom of universities to formulate and design their own strategies and to freely implement them, and (iii) Funding.

The government gives grants which the universities are free to use according to their priorities. University autonomy involves complete authority of individual universities to determine their needs and provide their funding, illuminate and empower their governing councils, determine the academic programmes and recruitment policies as well as general administrations. The only role reserved for government is for it to regulate in the area of accreditation of courses to ensure standards in the system.

The unsustainability of university education – founding and funding of public universities in Nigeria: The first university in Nigeria was University College Ibadan. It was established in 1948 and was mentored by University of London which had its root in the 13th Century system of education. The classical British university was a feudal institution grounded on a model of an autonomous, collegial and self-governing system.

As the former UK Prime Minster, Benjamin Disraeli, once famously remarked: “A university should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning”. The classical UK university was controlled solely through a democratic system operated and run by tenured professors and scholars. 

It was a compact system of organisation in which leadership and responsibility were decentralised on the basis of expertise in scholarship. The classical university also was funded on a very restrictive base through private endowments, or benefaction by the wealthy and by the missionary with whom the university was closely allied in its origins. 

This model of university governance began to fade globally after the Second World War. After the Second World War, there was rapid growth in the so-called welfare state idea. The welfare states recognised the benefits of public investment in the conduct of advanced learning, research, technology development, foreign policy and war. Governments began to recognise the relationships between a country’s welfare strategies and its abilities to produce technology through research.

There was, therefore, geometric rise in the level of relationships between governments and the universities. The result was the evolution of universities and learning centres funded directly by governments. Incidentally, University College Ibadan which was the first university in Nigeria was established during this time when the doctrine of welfarism was gaining ground, hence the University was funded wholly by government. Ever since, public universities have been founded and funded fully by government. 

Since that time, the average Nigerian was and is still made to believe that university education is the business of the government who must fund public universities. Unfortunately, many state governments in their bid to gain cheap popularity make promises, even at electioneering campaigns, to establish universities in their rural villages knowing fully well that there are no facilities or fund. As the provision of fund rose, governmental influence in key decisions on admissions, access, enrolment, faculty composition, tenure and the election of principal officers increase.  

With military leadership in Nigeria came the added impetus for military authorities to curtail student demands and protests, checkmate university staff unions and influence key decisions such as governing council constitutions, university quotas, policies and structure. Due to the periods from 1966 to 1979 and 1983 to 1999 when Nigeria was under military rule, Nigerian university systems became increasingly less autonomous, less collegial, and highly dependent on government for funding and for decision-making.

Government involvement increased with controls over the constitution and membership of governing councils, direct control over the appointment of key administrative officers of universities; and financial controls.

Simply put, government became a key stakeholder and decision-maker in Nigeria’s university systems. These relics of military rule are unfortunately still present today. In reality, therefore, education has suffered and is still suffering immeasurable damage and had become less and less sustainable.