May 29, also called Democracy Day is a national public holiday in Nigeria to commemorate the restoration of democracy in 1999, commemorated on 12 June.
While analysing the stance of the education sector in the last one year, Prof. Francis Egbokhare, a prolific scholar at the University of Ibadan, said the government had given the leadership of the education sector to low levels.
“It appears that the top man at the government has delegated responsibilities to lower levels that are not aligned with their overall goals, necessitating drastic action. The institutions are operating on a pay-as-you-go basis with no sense of coherence; everything is distorted. If this continues, public universities may cease to exist within the next three years due to compromises, overwork, and parallel sessions without supervision.
“There is a breakdown in the mentality of Nigerian intellectuals, and there must be strong leadership to restore order. Some policies have been reversed, like the IPPIS, which is a good one, and the government has started paying for the last strike, but the effects of the no-work policy have caused more damage to the system,” he said.
He said the composition of the recently released Governing Councils for some universities showed that the ministry did not understand what is obtainable in the sector, saying that the student loan started on the wrong foot too before several corrections were made.
