A lecturer in the Department of Sociology of the University of Ibadan, Dr Dauda Busari, has advised President Bola Tinubu not to put public universities in the country in further jeopardy.
Busari enjoined the federal government to halt what he called an anti-intellectual education policy under Tinubu’s watch.
He noted that Nigeria’s development cannot be greater than the level of its educational development.
The don asked Tinubu not to allow education to degenerate further under his watch if he could not improve what he met on ground.
Busari made these declarations on Wednesday while presenting the 27th Faculty Lecture of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan, with the topic “How much is enough? A Random Walk in the Marketplace of Social Research.”
The academic said that it was surprising that a government that has not increased funding for public universities would ever think of getting 40 per cent from whatever these underfunded universities generate before withdrawing the directive.
He said: “There is the habit of anti-intellectualism that permeates the policies of the government and is directed at the public universities, which has assumed a pitiable reality.
“One of the most distinct marks of this descent into philistinism is the deliberate pauperization of the universities to the detriment of quality education. The infrastructural decay in Nigeria’s public universities is appalling.
“The staff are not motivated; the public and even the students whom the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has often protected from draconian policies are now the major antagonistic parties against our union.
“If this government cannot improve on the standard it met on ground, it should at least strive to maintain the status quo. We have imagined that this government will tackle the inherent challenges confronting public universities head-on but the signals we are getting are indicative of a measured attempt to further put university education in jeopardy.”
