By Alade Adisa
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Congress of University Academics, CONUA, and the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, have described the over $1.82 billion spent by Nigerians to pay tuition fees in foreign universities in the first nine months of last year as a national embarrassment and an indictment of the university education system in the country.
They also called for an investigation into the sources of the incomes of those who paid such money.
The leaders of the groups spoke in chats with New Daily Prime through their National Presidents.
They were reacting to the data from the Central Bank of Nigeria that the humongous amount was spent on foreign tuition fees in the first nine months of last year.
The National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said,”It is a very unfortunate situation. More people are now sending their children abroad. Just last year, I learned that Nigerians spent about £600 million on tuition fees in Britain. We are busy funding other universities while ours are dying.
Don’t be surprised that the money being spent is not from private coffers, but from public sources. Most of the people involved are public officers.
“A senator earns over N30 million monthly a Special Adviser earns over N3 million monthly and a professor earns about N400,000 monthly. We are yet to get our priorities right. Nigerians must insist that the children of their leaders must attend schools here, then we may see some positive differences. If Nigerians care to observe, our universities are gradually going the way of our public primary and secondary schools. Abandoned and derelict.
“In 2023, the government said N300 billion was budgeted to revitalize our public universities, but not a single kobo was released. We pursued the release of the money in 2024, but it was not released and what we heard at the end of the day is that the money has been mopped up.
In his part, the National President of CONUA, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, noted,”It is a sad commentary and an indication of total indictment of our university education system. If the foreign exchange was floated leading to a high devaluation of the naira and we see this much being spent on foreign education. It is a lack of confidence on our system.
“Let government stem the tide, the kind of money being spent on foreign education is too huge. If half of that is spent on the schools here, things would be better. If the trend continues, the university education system would collapse. It is lack of trust in the system. When every parent is now desperate to get their wards and children our of Nigeria, who would then build this place for us?”
The National President of NAPTAN,
Haruna Danjuma, was of the view that such parents must be investigated.
“It is a minus to us and the education system to have had Nigerian parents spending so much on tuition fees for their children studying abroad. Are we doing justice to our country and fair to the system? It is an indictment. It is good for the government to think of the way out of the menace. Government should find means to upgrade facilities in our institutions. Nigerian leaders should also let their children attend schools here.
“People should only go abroad for courses that are not available here or else Nigerians would go abroad to study Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba Languages. Those spending such huge sum on foreign education should be investigated. Their sources of income should be known.”
