THE CRIMINALS IN OUR UNIVERSITIES ARE THE MANAGERS! Written by KEMKA S. IBEJI

I blame the government for their weakness, irresponsibility, insensitivity and crass failure to protect the Nigerian University Students and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

One would have blamed ASUU for fighting the wrong person if he or she doesn't understand the runnings of the university system here in Nigeria.

Let me shock you a little with how irresponsible our government is;

The government say that our federal universities are tuition free. In fact, in my days in the university, I usually take cognizance of the breakdown of the fees on my receipts. I will always see tuition fees as either #100 or so. That actually was supposed to be all the fees paid by any undergraduate in any of our federal universities. But what happens?

The university administration takes all manner of fees running into tens of thousands then and create further avenues for more money like, remedials, consultancy, Diplomas, and so on. They take exorbitant fees across departments and facilities running into billions of Naira. Every federal university in Nigeria is a mini state. Some are as rich as some states in Nigeria. And you need to see how some of the University Vice Chancellors live in utter flamboyance and extravaganza.

Now look at this; federal Universities rake in as much as at least 20 Billion Naira yearly. They do not account to anybody, they spend it as they want. But at the end of every month they open their arms to the government for the salaries of the staff - academic and non-academic. The government pays for the salaries of the university work force, pays for the entire infrastructure of the schools from roads to classrooms to everything you see in the university. Now I ask; what do they do with the billions of Naira they net in every year?

I did not know about this level of government irresponsibility till a former Federal Minister of Education lectured me on this. I was shocked. Where I disagreed with the ex-minister is when the minister was trying to blame the universities alone for it. I said no! The government is irresponsible.

I now shouted no wonder I was asked one day of one of our former lecturers in the university who eventually became the Vice Chancellor few years after. After saying that I know the man, I inquired to know why? I was told that the Professor was cooling off in EFCC net on case of fraud with a crazy figure of about #150 Billion Naira. I mean a Vice Chancellor who stays for just 4 or 5 years in office. #150 Billion Naira! I did not say #15,000 or #150,000 and not even #1,500,000.

So those who suffer this crass and crazy failures and fraud of the government and the school administrations are the students and the staff. But in all this, we all know and call the head of the government while the major criminals are never mentioned anywhere.

But do you know why I keep blaming the government for all this even when they did not eat or embezzle the money?

Government is the sovereign whom we relinquished our commonwill in the commonwealth to for proper administration. Unfortunately, when we talk about the government, we usually tend to exclude the Legislature and the Judiciary. We forget that every government is made up of the 3 Arms viz; the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. However, the bigger blame goes to the executive because even the education sector is largely run by them though the legislature has oversight functions on them.

Now I ask you; who is the criminal and who is to blame?