•Urges Tinubu not to put public varsities in further jeopardy
•Dr Dauda Busari
A Development Sociologist at the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Dr Dauda Busari, has asked the federal government of Nigeria to halt its anti-intellectual education policy under his watch.
He noted that Nigeria’s development cannot be more than the level of its educational development.
Dr Busari asked President Bola Tinubu not to allow education to degenerate further under his watch if he cannot improve what he met on ground.
The University Don made his position known while presenting the 27th Faculty Lecture of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan.
He spoke on the topic: “How much is enough? A Random Walk in the Marketplace of Social Research.”
According to him, it was surprising that a government which had not increased funding of public universities would think of getting 40 percent from whatever these underfunded universities generate, before withdrawing the directive.
The University Don maintained that if President Tinubu is interested in developing Nigeria, he must invest and fund public education, noting that the deliberate attack and pauperisation of lecturers by government would not augur well for the country.
Dr Busari said: “There is the habit of anti-intellectualism that permeates the policies of the government and directed at the public universities, and it 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 decays in Nigeria public universities is appalling. The staff are not motivated; the public and even the students whom the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have often protected from draconian policies are now the major antagonistic party 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 would tackle the inherent challenges confronting the public universities head-on, but the signals we are getting is indicative of a measured attempt to further put the university education in jeopardy.”
He called for systems thinking, arguing that the deficit of systems thinking had caused repeated failure and frustration of Nigerians.
“The primary problem with Nigeria is the deficit in systems thinking. Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the world’s complexity by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships, rather than by splitting it into parts.
“It has been used to explore and develop effective action in complex contexts, enabling systems change. Our approach to leadership and issues in Nigeria lack the capacity to think in systems.
“What we have is a highly sub-optimised system. Until people acquire systems literacy in leadership, their greatest efforts will not achieve sustainable ends. The absence of systems thinking leads to strategic fixation, blind optimism, repeated failure, and frustration,” he stated further.
