The Minister of Education, Olatunji Alausa, recently urged lawmakers to halt the excessive establishment of new universities, warning that the Federal Government is under increasing pressure to overhaul Nigeria’s education system.
Alausa made the call while featuring at the ministerial press briefing series organised by the Federal Ministry of Information in Abuja.
Alausa emphasised the need to strengthen existing institutions rather than focusing on the creation of new ones.
“We must prioritise improving our institutions instead of constantly advocating for new universities,” he said.
The penchant for unrestrained establishment of universities in the country, despite the decrepit state of the existing ones, as a result of gross underfunding, is highly counterproductive.
The past two administrations took this act to ridiculous levels. Still, it is incredible that the Tinubu government has equally embraced this, despite the fact that objective conditions suggest the contrary.
In the first three months of this year, nine of these institutions have sprung up, including the repurposing of existing public tertiary and even moribund private universities.
Also, 11 privately owned universities were granted licences within this period. Though the latter belongs to individuals, they would likely impact the academic ecosystem negatively, as they will inexorably draw from the same human resource pool that a national needs assessment in 2012 reported as its sickening capacity deficit. This has not been remedied in any significant way since then.
Among the new universities are: Federal University of Sports in Afuze, Edo State; Federal University of Technology and Environmental Sciences, in Iyin, Ekiti State; Federal University of Agriculture in Obio-Akpa, Oruk Anam Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State; Federal University of Environment and Technology in Ogoni, Rivers State; and Federal University of Agriculture and Development Studies, Iragbiji, Osun State. All of them were established in February 2025.
Earlier in March 2025, the Tai Solarin University of Education, owned by the Ogun State government, was taken over by the Federal Government, just as the Yaba College of Technology in Lagos, was upgraded to a university.
A moribund, privately-owned Nok University in southern Kaduna was also acquired by the Federal Government.
Approval was also given for the establishment of Federal University, Umunna, Okigwe, Imo State.
As a result, Nigeria has an aggregate of 278 universities, comprising 64, which are federal, 67 belonging to states, and 147 that are privately-owned. Last year, four Colleges of Education were upgraded to universities.
More of these “citadels of learning” are on the cusp of legislative approval, including, the Bola Ahmed Federal University of Nigerian Languages, to be located in Aba, Abia State.
It is sad that about 200 bills for the creation of more of these glorified secondary schools are before the National Assembly for consideration.
The lawmakers who are their masterminds are unbothered by Academic Staff Union of Universities’ perennial strikes over the government’s failure to fund the education system adequately, by releasing N1.3 trillion to revitalise the system over five years, in line with the 2009 agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU.
In 2018, the Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Ishaq Oloyede, said so unequivocally that the country does not need more universities, as the existing ones are capable of absorbing qualified candidates.
He was data-driven in his analysis. For instance, he said out of 1.6 million students who took the 2018/19 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, only 700,000 candidates had the minimum requirement of O’level credits in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics, which are mandatory for admission.
From these statistics, it is evident that 800,000 candidates were not qualified for university admission at the time.
Besides, not all the 700,000 who took the UTME passed to the level of securing the cut-off marks of their respective universities.
Universities, by their very nature, as centres of teaching, learning, research and innovation, have basic standards they must meet, being in the global grid of knowledge production.
They should not be decreed into existence by the whims and caprices of politicians.
Unfortunately, setting up universities has become part of the constituency projects of Nigerian politicians.
Under Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, each state was entitled to have at least one federal university. This informed his administration’s decision to establish 12 new universities, even in states incapable of filling up their admission quotas in universities close to them, under the catchment principle. Some of these states didn’t even register up to 100 candidates in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.
That irrational policy streak was subsequently exploited by military service chiefs during Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. This led to the creation of the Army University in Biu, Borno State, despite the fact that the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, already has a university status.
The Admiralty University of Nigeria, in Delta State, and Air Force University, in Bauchi State, completed that game of avarice. A ministerial eye service equally saw to the establishment of Transport University in Daura, Katsina State – the home town and state of Buhari.
Nigeria cannot continue to have universities that have no well-equipped laboratories, libraries, students’ hostels, lecture halls, water, electricity, sufficient academic manpower, or research capacities.
None of them can attract world-class faculty or international students. As it has been observed, products from this kind of system are anything but fit for purpose or ready for the demands of the 21st century.
This anomalous trend has provoked ASUU into endless strikes in demand for a better academic environment.
If Nigeria now has 278 universities, it logically follows that prevailing conditions in these institutions have deteriorated, as no significant changes in funding and infrastructural provision have taken place in decades.
Succumbing to these political manipulations is not the stuff that leadership is made of. This balderdash of establishing ivory towers that makes a mockery of their essence must stop.
The indiscriminate licensing of universities is uncalled for because that is not the way to compete in the knowledge world.