Nigeria’s per capita tertiary education budget of N1.15 miserable – Adelusi-Adeluyi

By Dayo Adesulu

AS stakeholders call on the Federal Government to increase education annual funding continue, former Minister of Health, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, has said that the country’s “annual budgetary allocation to tertiary education per capita remained at N1.15k.”

Adelusi-Adeluyi who spoke during a lecture delivered at University of Lagos, UNILAG, said that compared to funding for education in other countries, Nigeria has continued to score poorly in global competitiveness. He noted that India’s annual budgetary allocation to tertiary education per capita was Rs27.77 (approximately N135), the US annual budgetary allocation to tertiary education per capita was $188.2 (approximately N59,000) and Nigeria’s was N1.15k.

Budgetary allocation to education per capita

He said,”Nigeria’s current annual budgetary allocation to education per capita is N2.50k. India’s annual budgetary allocation to education per capita is Rs66.404 (approx N322) while in the US, it is $647.1 (approximately N203,674). It is easy to see that in developed and developing countries alike, investment in education is a priority as evidenced in the budgetary allocation to the education or human capital development segment.

“Clearly, these countries appreciate that the benefits of investing in education transcend the refinement and development of human potential to include the massive positive spin-offs on the rest of the society including in such areas as research and innovation which continue to fuel the match of human progress. Is it any surprise, therefore, that Nigeria continues to score poorly in global competitiveness? In the 2016 report of Global Competitiveness, Nigeria was ranked 127 among 138 countries.

”Nigeria is furthermore ranked 77th out of 138 countries for capacity of innovation and 123rd among 138 countries, for University-Industry cooperation in research and development.”

While delivering the first annual lecture of the Faculty of Pharmacy, UNILAG, on ”Private Public Partnership as a Vehicle for Sustainable Pharmaceutical Education,” Adelusi-Adeluyi regretted that 17 years into the 21st Century, Nigeria still appears to be tottering on the brink of underdevelopment. According to him, youths make up half of Nigeria’s population, with the median age of18 years which implies a future of an increasingly predominant youth population. (Contrast this with the US for instance, whose median age is 38 and Switzerland whose median age is 42.2).

Going down memory lane,  he said that the harsh environment of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and World Bank structural adjustment programmes in the 1980s, led the Babangida military dictatorship to undertake massive budgetary cutbacks in higher education, noting, “consequently, our brightest and best fled abroad. Today, Nigerian doctors, scientists and engineers are making massive contributions in Europe and North America.”

Arguing that Nigeria has the best brains globally if given the enabling academic environment, he lauded Philip Emeagwali who won the 1989 Gordon Bell Award for his work in super-computing; Jelani Aliyu who designed the first electric car for American automobile giant, General Motors; Olufunmilayo Olopede, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, who won a McArthur Genius Award for her work on cancer.

Others include Winston Soboyejo, who earned a Cambridge doctorate at 23, a Princeton engineering professor laurelled for his contributions to materials research. He is chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Washington University biomedical engineering professor Samuel Achilefu received the St. Louis Award for his invention of cancer-seeing glasses that is a major advance in radiology.

“Kunle Olukotun of Stanford did work of original importance on multi-processors. National Merit laureate, Omowunmi Sadik of State University of Binghamton owns patents for bio-sensors technology. Young Nigerians are also recording stellar performances at home and abroad. A Nigerian family, the Imafidons were voted “the smartest family in Britain,” in 2015. Anne-Marie Imafidon earned her Oxford Master’s in Mathematics and Computer Science when she was only 19. Today, she sits on several corporate boards and was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to science.

Recently, Benue State University mathematician, Atovigba Michael Vershima is believed to have solved the two centuries old Riemann Conjecture that has defied giants such as Gauss, Minkowski and Polya. Another young man, Hallowed Olaoluwa, was one of a dozen “future Einsteins” awarded post-doctoral fellowships by Harvard University. He completed a remarkable doctorate in mathematical physics at the University of Lagos at 21. While at Harvard, he aims to focus on solving problems relating to “quantum ergodicity and quantum chaos,” with applications to medical imaging and robotics.

“Victor Olalusi recently graduated with a perfect score of 5.0 CGPA at the Russian Medical Research University, Moscow, and was feted the best graduate throughout the Russian Federation. Habiba Daggash, daughter of my friend, Senator Sanusi Daggash, recently graduated with a starred first in Engineering at Oxford University. Emmanuel Ohuabunwa earned a GPA of 3.98 out of a possible 4.0 as the best overall graduate of the Ivy-League Johns Hopkins University. Stewart Hendry, Johns Hopkins Professor of Neuroscience, described the young man as having “an intellect so rare that it touches on the unique…a personality that is once-in-a-life-time.

“There is also young Yemi Adesokan, post-doctoral fellow of Harvard Medical School who patented procedures for tracking the spread of viral epidemics in developing countries. Ufot Ekong recently solved a 50-year-old mathematical riddle at Tokai University in Japan and was voted the most outstanding graduate of the institution. He currently works as an engineer for Nissan, having pocketed two patents in his discipline.

”This is only the tip of the iceberg. If our system were not to be so inclement to talent, we would be celebrating a bountiful harvest of geniuses in all the fields of human endeavour. We punch miserably below our weight in the hierarchy of world economics and politics. None of our institutions come near the top 500 in the World Universities League Table.

Economic growth and development

An estimated 50 per cent of our people live in extreme poverty. Youth unemployment hovers around 45 per cent (70 per cent for the far-North). The poverty is heartbreaking. Our per capita GDP is less than $3,000 as compared to Singapore’s $55,252. It is only by investing in science and in our young people can we forge a better future. Our government should keep a roster of all super-achievers of Nigerian origin and we should tap their brains for the building of our country.

”It is clear, therefore, that Nigeria’s social and economic growth and development will remain inextricably linked to the strengthening and development of its education sector, especially its tertiary education. The challenge is for society to create an environment that facilitates new knowledge creation through research with requisite governmental and societal support – moral and financial. My research in preparing this paper showed that up to 80 per cent of universities’ budgetary allocations go to recurrent costs including such overheads as staff salaries, electricity, security, building maintenance among others. Less than 10 per cent is spent on research.

”In the circumstances, it is easy to see that a career in pharmaceutical research or scientific research is not likely to be top-of-mind for many. Indeed, it is clear to see how difficult it must be for the academia to retain its brightest minds. That is why it is hardly any surprise that today, thousands of Nigerian pharmacists are found outside our shores – plying their trade in places far and near. Many of those who choose to stay behind in Nigeria are found in sundry sectors – telecommunications, financial services, management consulting and others. The allure of teaching and pharmaceutical research is at its lowest ebb.

“Government must be educated on the essence of PPPs in financing public tertiary education. In order to attract private investors, the government must first sell its PPP strategy. Private investors will only be keen to shoulder the burden of the risk of investing, if they have a clear view of the government’s overall PPP strategy. But government cannot sell a strategy about something whose benefits is probably not very apprised nor convinced about.

There is an imperative, therefore, for the Faculty of Pharmacy and indeed the larger Nigerian university community, to lend its voice to a national advocacy that motivates government to craft a coherent PPP strategy for the purpose of financing tertiary education in general. Doing this, of course, will entail painstakingly enabling the government appreciate the value potentially derivable from meaningful PPP initiatives in the tertiary education sector. Private investors will only be keen to fully support investing in PPPs if, above all, they are convinced that the government has the political will to support PPPs.”

 

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