By Our Reporter
For years the Novae ‘Rich and multi-millionaire businessmen had taken advantage of the one million naira initially charged Applicants by the National Universities Commission, NUC, to obtain the Application form and an additional processing fee of five million naira for establishment of privately funded University in any part of the country to do so.
It was not surprising why there are so many private Universities in all nooks and crannies of the country, particular, in the major cities. The situation was so worrisome that several mushroom Universities had sprung up in different parts of the 36 states of the Federation including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Many of the investors in the country’s private tertiary institutions appears to have seen it as a major source of generation income with little or no effort. The worst part of it was that some of these private Universities including those established by religious institutions had used their schools to award honorary Doctorate degrees to some privileged Nigerians, who can afford it.
As at February 11, 2025, there are about 150, private Universities, in Nigeria, which had been approved by past and Present Administrations on the recommendations of the NUC with several other applications, still pending at the NUC, Headquarters at the FCT.
The Value News findings shows that Ogun, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, home state and now Mecca, of a sort for politicians seeking to occupy the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander -In-Chief of the Armed Forces has the highest number of such privately funded Universities, with 16.
The south western state was said to have been quickly followed with the FCT, which has 12 while Kano, Kwara, Osun and Oyo, came next, with eight private Tertiary Institutions each. Going by the NUC report, 70% of the privately funded Universities in Nigeria, which is the most populous country in the West African sub-region, are located in the south Western geopolitical region, while the remaining 30% are located in other parts of the country and the FCT.
The NUC, Authorities may have read the handwriting on he walls that if the low Application and processing fees for establishment of privately funded Universities remains, it will not tell good of Nigerian University education system as the private Universities will be too many and difficult to control.
Perhaps, to ensure that the newly established private Universities are positioned to meet the challenges of the 21st century as obtained in the North American country of the United States, US, United Kingdom, UK and other parts of the world, may have informed why the NUC Authorities had jerked up the Applications and processing fees to effectively control the Applicants.
The NUC, Authorities, were said to have jerked up the Application Form for establishment of private Universities in Nigeria by from one million naira to five million naira and processing fee from five million naira to N25 million or 400%.
Abdullahi Ribadu, Executive Secretary, NUC, who was said to have issued a statement to back up the fee increase, had said that ‘’the price hike for establishment of privately funded Universities is ‘’to ensure ‘’better Coordination of such Universities and to forestall abuse’’.
The NUC, Executive Secretary, may have sent jitters down the spines of those who had already purchased the Applications Form to set up private Universities in different parts of the country but are yet to pay the processing fee of N25million, as the story has changed, meaning that they must pay the new processing fee of N30m.
The NUC boss, who could not hide his feelings had said that the reviewed processing fee of N25m, will be communicated to the Applicants who have already purchased the Form at the initial rate of one million naira but are yet to pay the processing fee for their Applications Form.
He had said that the Applicants are expected ‘’to effect the N25 m, payment within a period of 30 working days after getting the Commission’s reminder message or risk forfeiture of their pending applications. The NUC, may have worsened matters for the Applicants as it was it was said to have suspended further processing of all inactive Applications including those who had applied for the establishment of private open Universities.
The bold decision was said to have affected all other Applicants who have not made adequate progress on their applications or made submissions to the Commission over the last two years.
It was said to have also imposed a moratorium for a period of one year with effect from Monday, February, 10, 2025 on inactive applications for establishment of private Universities to enable the NUC, officials, ‘’to effectively conduct comprehensive review of such pending applications with a view to determining their viability’’.
Given an insider information, Ribadu, the NUC, Executive Secretary, had said that Applicants for establishment of privately funded Universities on Step I, of the 14 Step procedures, and Acceptance of fresh applications including those of private open Universities’, will be processed and appropriate recommendations made to the Federal Executive Council. FEC, through Maruf Tunji Alausa, the minister of Education, for the Council’s Approval.
While the NUC, has moved to effectively control the establishment of privately funded Universities in Nigeria, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, the Registrar, of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, had said that the autonomy of Federal Universities can be better achieved if the NUC, is left alone ‘’to manage the budgets of the tertiary institutions’’ in addition to its role as ‘’the regulator that accredits courses in universities’’.
Prof. Oloyede, who incidentally was a former Vice Chancellor, of University of Ilorin, Kwara state, had said that ‘’University Education is so sensitive’’, which clearly gives an insight on why the Federal Government should ‘’allow experts to administer these Federal tertiary institutions’’.
The former University Don, had faulted a situation where each Federal University Authorities approaches the Joint National Assembly Committee, on Education, ‘’ to defend’’ their yearly budgets and succeed in getting whatever allocation they want based on the members of the Committee they know and the influence the school Authorities wield.
He was emphatic that the Government must take another look on’’ the funding mechanism of public Universities’’, insisting that NUC, should be given the mandate ‘’to run the Federal Universities, in order ‘’to know who to hold responsible if there is any alleged mismanagement of funds.
The former University of Ilorin, Vice Chancellor, recalled that when the NUC, had managed the budget of the Federal Universities some years ago, there was what he had described as ‘’the Universities Annual Review System’’, which was said to have looked at how many Candidates Universities have across disciplines and used that to determine the next year’s budget.
The UniIlorin ex- Vice Chancellor, who was incidentally , Chairman, Committee of Vice Chancellors , had said that no University Authorities need to know any person in the National Assembly or ministry circles to get its budget passed, as they were able ‘’to reorganize and retool the Commission’’ to do its job of being incharge of the public Universities.
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