Nigerian university students have united under the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and have protested in the streets of Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State’s capital, demanding that the federal government yield to the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The Madonna University Alumni Association has urged the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to soft-pedal on its threat to massively clamp down on private universities in the country as a result of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union, (ASUU).
FOR several years in Nigeria, public universities (both federal and state-owned) were the major sources of higher education. Especially, given the much talked-about disparity between products of the universities and polytechnics in the country over the years, the number of candidates gravitating towards universities kept increasing in geometrical terms.
Nigeria has 100 public and 30 private universities. A strike by lecturers has paralysed public institutions for the past three months, while teaching at private universities has continued. As a result, there has been a rush by parents with financial muscle to register their children in private universities, whose proprietors are smiling all the way to the bank.
Private universities in Nigeria have shown promising growth and could help retain the thousands of students who have in recent years spent billions of dollars studying abroad. However, to ensure that growth in post-secondary enrolment continues, the increase in the number of private institutions is being matched by increased government investment – part of a broader shift to expand the skilled labour pool.