Expdonaloaded News; MEMO TO BUHARI: That protest by Alvan Ikoku and other Federal universities of education

The newsreport about staff and students of Alvan Ikoku University of Education, Owerri, taking to the streets of Owerri, Imo State, on Monday, last week, to protest the alleged plan, by Buhari administration, to revert the university to its previous status of college of education, along with others like Adeyemi University of Education, Ondo, Federal University of Education, Kano and Federal University of Education, Zaria, made an interesting reading.

So also the reactions generated by the rumour. While members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU)  of  Federal University of Education, Kano, and the university’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), led by its chairman, Dr. Abubakar Sadiq Haruna, accused the former provosts of the four former colleges of education of conniving with some government officials in Buhari administration to poison the President’s mind into reverting the universities to their former status, Mrs. Ukachi Wachukwu, Chair of ASUU, Alvan Ikoku chapter, vowed that all trade unions in the school, including students and staff, would resist the purported plan to downgrade the university status of Alvan.
For now, I take the information being dished out to the public on this matter as mere rumour as no official statement has been issued on it by the Presidency. But if, indeed, there is something like that being contemplated, then I will like to advise extreme caution, on the part of Buhari government, at this point.
There’s no doubt that the elevation of these four old colleges of education to university status is well-thought-out, even if mixed with a tinge of politics, given its belated approval, by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of President Goodluck Jonathan administration, towards its twilight days, perhaps, for fear that Buhari administration may not be well-disposed to doing so if the decision is left in its hand.    But that should not take anything away from the wisdom embedded in that decision, something that has been hailed by an erudite scholar, education technocrat like Prof. Peter Okebukola, former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) who posited that the institutions, when fully upgraded, academic, infrastructure and funding-wise, will go a long way in straightening “the crooked graduate teacher education system in Nigeria.” Not only that, it will help to curb the reluctance that our children exhibit in signing up for education programmes, in JAMB’s UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) for fear that it may lead them to obtaining only the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE), rather than first degree.
Reverting the institutions to their former status would be, to me, like reversing the hand of the clock on these areas. Rather than doing that, the President should think of how the four universities of education can be strengthened by securing a legal backing for them and by, as Okebukola suggested, drafting a unique curriculum for them, drawn from good practices from countries like Finland and United States, developing academic briefs and physical masterplan for them, by conducting diligent staff audit to match the minimum standards of staff and by advertising for staff, at all levels from the vice-chancellor to the most junior staff.
One of the placards carried by the students of Alvan Ikoku University of Education, Owerri, read: ‘Mr. President, please, don’t take away our university from us.’ That is a plea that President Muhammadu Buhari should do well to heed.