THE BIG QUESTION?

Few weeks ago, a former Nigeria's Veepee and the presidential candidate for the people's democratic party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar made a statement at the NBA convention held in Lagos,a Statement which was distorted by most news outlets. The NBA had invited the four Frontline candidates in the forthcoming general elections so as to provide them the platform to bare their thoughts on issues of national interest.

Atiku was reported to have said that if elected into power, he would hand over the management of the federal varsities to the state government, although untrue, this statement attracted a lot of reactions from many Nigerians. 

In actual sense, Atiku didn't say he is going to hand over federal universities to the state government, he only made claims that federal government alone can't effectively fund education, as he harped on the need to provide a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive and contribute its own quota, just as it is in developed climes.

However, it wasn't just Atiku alone who had made claims along the line of government not being capable of shouldering the responsibility of tertiary education alone. A number of other political office holders have also towed the same path, there were even rumors in some quarters that the FG was planning to sell off federal varsities. The FG had since denied this claim but its disposition towards education is a reflection of their veiled motives.

Although the statement of handing over federal universities to States, as credited to Atiku is fake, yet, it is up for debate. What we deem as very likely is the takeover of a state university by the federal government but the other way round, is more or less like a worst case scenario. One is not then surprised by the backlashes that attended the shocking headline.

This then begs the question, do states have the ability to manage federal varsities? We shall answer this question first by looking at the structure of both the state government, (the proposed new owners) and the federal varsities.

Right now, state governments across Nigeria can't be compared with their counterparts in other developed economies. They lack autonomy to make important decisions as it affects their state. A very good example of this is the state policing system, there have been a lot of agitations on this issue, yet the federal government failed to grant the request. It is even appalling that the FG decided to prevent the security outfit in the south west, codenamed 'Amotekun' from bearing sophisticated weapons while bandits ravaging these states have them in their possessions.

Similarly, the financial autonomy of the states is not there. Recall a popular incident last year where the FIRS went on loggerheads with the Lagos state government on who should collect VAT on industries domiciled in the state. 

The Nigerian system has been designed in such a way that the state governments can only survive via the handouts from the federal government and should in case, the federal allocation drops or stalls, states are on their way to the trenches! So if this is the case, how then can states shoulder the responsibility of federal universities.

It should also be remembered that the states across the federation as we have them now are nothing in comparison with the then, regional systems in Nigeria. The old regions were larger and more autonomous than the states of now, thereby making it somewhat easy for them to cater for the needs of their resident institutions but such is not the case as of now.

Under this arrangement, states will continue to be at the mercy of the federal government, with little or no control over the resources within the state. This is where the talks about restructuring and devolution of power comes in and it's interesting that the politician in question, Atiku, seems to believe in this course, that looks like a ray of hope. 

But there is another attendant problem that could arise as a result of this and it is that the less buoyant States will be at a disadvantage, owing to the unequal distribution of resources around the nation. 

Be that as it may, the persistent clamour for state's autonomy must sooner or later come to bear and the states perceived to be disadvantaged must explore all means to survive, this, I believe will curb corruption to an extent, owing to the fact that public office holders will be more concerned about effective management of the limited resources at their disposal whilst sourcing for other means of appreciable income and revenues, other than seeking to enrich themselves at the detriment of the helpless masses.

And whichever way the country is going to be restructured, it must not be rushed, it must rather be phased and pro-rated, taking into consideration the less-privileged states, so to speak. Equally, there must be wide consultations with relevant stakeholders all through the length and breadth of the country, it is against this backdrop that we would have a thorough and well informed restructuring.

That said, seeing that restructuring will leave some states at a disadvantage and given that states have enough loads already, handing over federal varsities to states will be a very difficult decision to make. As a matter of fact, some of these states already have multiple tertiary institutions which they cater for out of the allocations that come from Abuja every month. It is quite unfortunate that lecturers of some state universities have not been paid their wages for many months, and we still think it is a feasible idea to go on with the hand-over.

A close look at the yearly budgets of some federal varsities juxtaposed with budgetary allocations to states will shed more light on this issue. 

Taking the 2022 national budget as a case study; according to Budgit, the total allocation to the ministry of education for the 44 federal universities was 355.47 billion, this accounts for just 2% of the total national budget of 17.126 trillion. Sadly, this is in sharp contrast to what obtains in the early '90s, when budgetary allocations to federal varsities take a large chunk of the national budget. For instance, between 1991 and 1994, the allocation to federal varsities averaged at 78% of the total budget!

Out of the 355.47 billion budgetary allocation to the federal universities; the university of Nigeria, Nsukka got the highest share of 24.2 billion, followed by Ahmadu Bello university, Zaria which got 22.6 billion, universities of calabar, Benin and Ibadan got 19.8 billion, 17.7 billion and 17.1 billion respectively.

Now let's take the University of Benin as an example, this university is situated in Benin-city, the Edo state capital. The total budget for this state in 2022 was 214.2 billion, out of which 24.6 billion was allocated to education, placing this side by side with the budgetary allocation to UNIBEN, which stands at 17.7 billion, this portends that the state will have to spend 72% of its budgetary allocation on education on UNIBEN alone, if it were to be the owner of the institution. 

And bearing in mind that Edo state has other tertiary institutions; two state universities, polytechnics, institutes and a number of primary schools and secondary schools, each of which requires funding, it is therefore clear that the hand-over of UNIBEN to Edo state will definitely put a strain on the finances of the state and this applies to most states of the federation. However, this might not be much of a problem if the state government has more access to funds or better still, has enough control over their resources.

But in recent times, some state governors have not displayed enough responsibility and honesty in correct appropriation of public funds. So the concern here is that even when states get more money, there might not be readiness on the part of the Governors to use it for the right purposes.

What is more pathetic now is that the federal universities are grossly underfunded and as a result, only earmark a miserly amount to infrastructural development on their campuses. According to dataphyte, in 2022, Obafemi Awolowo University has a budget of N12.005 billion, out of which N11.198 billion is earmarked for personnel cost, N173.248 million for overhead cost and N633.634 million for capital expenditure. Only 5.2% of the institution’s budget is earmarked for capital expenditures.

The university of Benin has a total budget of N17.823 billion, N16.859 billion is earmarked for personnel cost while recurrent cost is N171.850 million and capital expenditure is N791.989 million. The capital expenditure represents just 1.06% of the total budget.

In the above analysis, it was deduced that federal universities are in a financial strait and this has reflected in the amount earmarked for capital projects. One agency that makes up for the infrastructural deficit in these institutions, Tertiary education fund (TETFUND) has been there for them but it's still not adequate. 

Moreover, a common fear among stakeholders is what would happen should TETFUND become defunct. These and many other agitations formed the basis of this year's ASUU strike. Lecturers claimed that TETFUND is meant to be an interventionary agency and not the one doing the most work but the latter has always been the case.

A quick look at the N 20.51 trillion 2023 budget, recently presented to the national Assembly by Buhari, indicated that a total sum of N 1.078 trillion was budgeted for education, out of which N 470 billion is planned to be spent on federal universities and other tertiary institutions. This shows that the budgetary allocation to education is just 5.3% while that of the federal universities is only 2.3% of the entire budget, this is a far cry from UNESCO's 15% recommendation.

Instead of the funding for universities to increase, it had continued on a steady decline. This is why all hands must be on deck to work out a foolproof and functional funding model for tertiary education in Nigeria. Government alone shouldn't be the financier of education, as we have it in developed economies, where most of the universities are owned by private institutions. However, before we can get to this level, governments at all levels must have provided the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.

There is also the need for an educational bank where students can access loans which they can repay after graduation, not also forgetting that they will only be able to repay the loans if there are well-paying jobs out there. Incentives in form of scholarships, bursary, loan forgiveness and fund-raising should be introduced and implemented as appropriate.

Even though the idea of handing over federal universities to states is unconventional, it is a bold one that needs to be given enough consideration and critically evaluated for feasibility. Barring any peculiar issue, state governments will be able to handle the federal universities if given more financial autonomy and the respective Governors display readiness to efficiently manage them.

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