What are the symptoms of the failure of higher education in Nigeria?
The symptoms of the failure of higher education include persistent poverty, persistent corruption, persistent instability, persistently bad governance, the lawless violence of terrorism, the endemic malfunction of institutions, economic underperformance, and dependency on developed countries.
We have been led to believe that these symptoms are the causes of underdevelopment. That is wrong. Expatriates are in Nigeria with Nigerians, yet they do what Nigerian graduates generally cannot do. The symptoms don’t affect the performance of expatriates. The symptoms are incurable until Nigerians begin to perform as well as expatriates in the high numbers that expatriates cannot provide.
The most ethical and corruption-free leadership has no means to address the failure of higher education. As a result, ideology, democracy, authoritarianism, free elections, anti-corruption laws, uprising, revolution, and wars do not address the symptoms.
Revenues from the export of oil and gas, raw materials, agricultural products, globalization, and foreign aid do not address the symptoms. Such revenue may provide tenuous prosperity or modernization and give a false impression that development is taking place. However, the symptoms of the failure of higher education don’t go away.