Sad News about Higher Institutions of Learning in Nigeria

Higher institutions of learning in Nigeria are ever out of the headlines. That is the way it should be, if it was in the service of scientific breakthroughs, medical feats and profound insights into the crippling problems of underdevelopment. Alas! Most of what we read and hear about the universities is not of this kind. What they are gradually acquiring is not scholastic fame but notoriety. University, polytechnic and college students have turned riot, arson and destruction into an annual ritual, while petty personality squabbles, examination frauds, sex scandals and administrative high-handedness have become part of the institutions image. Unrest among academic is becoming as frequent as the traditional student trouble, and may in time surpass it. This development has caused a crisis of confidence in the management of the higher institutions and the academics themselves must accept the blame for allowing it to set in.
It can be argued that the Higher Institutions of learning are no worse in this respect than other public institutions. This may be so but the public expects more from its universities than from, say, state-owned enterprises like PHCN, the electricity body. In any case, do the universities not always argue desperately for their uniqueness?
To be sure, the poor materials state of Nigerian universities today deserves our sympathy. Many are just glorified training colleges with decaying facilities and absolutely no incentives for research. However, to plead poverty as an explanation for the current run of unwholesome happenings is to admit that university, polytechnic and college of education dons are idle and that the Nigerian institution campuses have become a devil's workshop for idle hands.
The picture of academics paying nocturnal visits to the powers that be and soliciting external support for their drive to b Vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts is a well known one. Their ambition has sold the institutions short. The result is that, now, the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education have lost the respect which they are supposed to have among the less educated.