CareersNG

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1. True their unis may be better but its not that much better in general. Moreover its Nigerians and other foreigners like us who make their schools abi where do u think many of Nigeria's talent are.
Harvard's endowment is now 29B? Wonderful! The last I saw it was 6B. But even then that money you're looking at has been with them since forever. Harvard as d oldest US uni has many rich alumni and since it is a private (tuition fees is over $45k) they retained their money. In essence we can not (I almost said never) compete. Also, if we paid $45k in tuition (i.e. =N=5million plus) and we no embezzle am, then our schools will be far much better

I think Nigeria's main problem is that we really don't like ourselves abi what is the sense in taking money from 9ja and dumping it overseas (lack of identity) If we start valuing ourselves then we'll move forward, then we'll have people who can selflessly speak out against fraud or corruption or even evil govt. and then our unis will be good. FOr example in d same 9ja unis, the lecturers r fixing themselves as well as the students. You can ask fowe, we were in the same school. Even right there (within ourselves) we can't move forward.. SURE!

Bns, why did you sound so pessimistic about our plight. We can definately compete with them. We once did. UI used to be foremost in Africa not because it was first but quality. Ife prided itself of best jounals in Africa with its pool of eggheads. These people left because infrastruture were and are still decaying.

A Singapore University came among first 100 or so last year. So also are schools in Japan, Finland etc. I believe we have all it takes (potentially may be) including human resources as you have noted.

Let's make them to undertsand that it pays off better to invest in human capital than keeping the money in overseas accounts for interests.

Even if you think we cannot with Harvard, Yale et all, what about in Africa.

I second you datola, i feel we can compete. Money is a key in so many things. Let money come into our education, you would see people come in and people developing, and thereby our Universities can become worldclass!

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Fowe.
Choices make or mar Chances ... add extra care to your choices today.

I beg to disagree !

What you see (low ranking, poor infrastructure etc) are just symptoms of problems, but are not the root problems. I dont think pumping in money will salvage the situation. Its just like saying giving the Federal goverment more money will solve Nigerias problem. We all know the reverse will happen ! (example: Oil Boom of 70's - led to mismanagement that culminated in Austerity measure<shagari> and SAP <IBB>).

I opine that simply pumping in money will aggravate the situation.

Can anybody tell me wether we ever bothered to quantify the impact of billions of naira spent on the UBE ? If you must know, overall, public school enrolment has actually been droping within the UBE years.

As long as the wrong people continue to run our educational system I dont see our universities competing even in WEST AFRICA in the near future !

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More twisted than dreadlocks

....hmmmmm i feel u sir!

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Fowe.
Choices make or mar Chances ... add extra care to your choices today.

Wow.. I was grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted.
1. I wasn't pessimistic. In fact, I was optimistic (What I said [in summary] was "..if we did a lil more, we'll be there" Pls re-read.

2. what I said we can't compete against is harvard's 29B endowment (read d post well). Even though d current HOD of my prev dept sent an email saying they just got =N= 450M to the dept (i.e. Dept of Geology, OAU). I still feel getting $29B would be a formidable challenge

"Money answereth all things" - the holy Bible. Top economic institions the world over have suggested about 22% or so of our national budget should be allocated to education sector. Currently it's about 2% so how on earth do you want them to perform. Money is need for research and endowment fund. Money is needed for sabaticals and oversea fellowship studies, money is needed to motivate lecturers (see various school of management on motivation). I'm sure most of you top guys abroad ran away because of money - directly or indirecly. THINK WELL before you react to this.

It is correct to say it's not only the problem but it is KEY PROBLEM. Funding is part of criterial for rating schools of which Harvard is top. We are not saying we can compete with Harvard but let's once again be the best in Africa just as we used to sing in those days, "...Afrca's most beautiful campus.."

I'll be right back.

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More twisted than dreadlocks

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More twisted than dreadlocks

I know pumping monry wont solve the problem. (what did they do with the previous cash they collected?).

As for being there, there are many issues indeed, but [I dare say] some may be tied to goodwill, comfort and/or safety etc u get there

As for those guys u mentioned. I don't know what they did exactly. Only thing I know is that they must have done something for them to be mentioned by you. Either way, murder/death doesn't end a legacy: My Lord Jesus died, Martin Luther King died, In fact many ppl have died to make US and the UK what it is today. So nothing is wrong with trying. I dare they they achieved their aim

...hhmmmm, this is top class analysis ooo.
I feel u guys, and i respect ur views.

Looking at this issue from the present Nigerian status, i feel what X-2-X is trying to say, that the present state of NIgeria is not encouraging and even very risky for one to think of making the system, because that can even make u loose ur already made self.
Money is definately needed everywhere in the world, it runs things, and its been spent in every country too including Nigeria. So talking about lack of funds in our educational system is not because we dont have money, its because we not using it for the right things, rather we prefer things like; Nigeria95 and Miss World etc.
So convince me that even if millions of dollars is spent on the universities that the people in charge would not convert it into Miss University Campuses rather than the research projects.
This is just an exagerated way of pointing out the fact that the people managing the money is more of a critical issue to Nigeria than the money itself! As we know in every sector in Nigeria that money is not our main problem, but people!
No matter the amount of money pumped in, so far the wrong people manage it, its still failure!

Regards to all

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Fowe.
Choices make or mar Chances ... add extra care to your choices today.

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More twisted than dreadlocks

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More twisted than dreadlocks

I honestly don't know why I am easily misunderstood even with I write in plain text. Ok agreed we all have work, wives, and other things taking out time but r u ppl really following my argument at all?

To Fowe: I don't even get you. In essence, I never addressed your own issue. I didn't even exaggerate the management problem. In fact my only allusion to it was to agree with x2x.

To X-2-X: Do you know what my point is? Let me [TRY TO] clarify
1. On money: My position has been the following
- We probably can't get an endowment of $29B like Harvard so the issue doesn't arise
- We don't even need to get $29B to get our system in good shape
- Yes, we do need cash and yes we need better management. In essence, I'm saying the money factor shd not be downplayed like x-2-x said or over emphasized like datola said. Did u guys notice this in the argument?

2. Issue itself:
-I felt the problem was different. Different from management or money itself. That is why I spoke about selfishness of the average man, thinking in the long term, death etc. In fact if u notice I was attacking your selfishness about building the system.
@Fowe: At least you can now see that you were way off.
@X-2-X: One part you might have understood my argument shows up in ur question about what I'll do if I was the education minister: That will be discussed is later

Lastly, I was [and still am] against the pessimism x-2-x showed. By the way, I don't think you know about the history of people you live with (i.e. ppl abroad) and how their history has made them into what they are today.

Do you know that both the white man and the black man are equally corrupt? Do you know it is mainly the conscience and long term thought that separates us? HAve you read about other african countries and their issues?

I just have to get back to work. Expect more over the weekend

On death:
If a person dies today for something, the effect is not immediately seen. In fact when the Lord Jesus died, the two guys walking on the road spoke that they thought he'll be the one to end their problems, but now he's dead(meaning that was the end). Even Martin Luther King made more waves after he died.
Those people that died in nigeria didn't die for nothing. Because of them, hope lives in the hearts of many.
Lastly, did u know Yar' ardua is d first sitting president to declare his assets and make them public. Oh pls, I'm angry with Nigeria on many issues but I definitely know there's hope.

On a positive note: what about Zenith that is now trading @ =N=66 with the largest market cap in the country? Eehn. it shows there's a change doesn't it?

You are right in your views. We know there is money in Nigeria but our leaders have just decided to use the money otherwise instead of funding education and other good things for various reasons, some of which in my own opinion and that of any right thinking member of our society are as follows:

1. Most of them now have private universities and they want patronage to them. Consider this, on the week ASUU started it's inddustrial action, Bells University owned by OBJ and many other dick and harry glorified secondary schools placed ads in the dailies that in their schools "no stike" "No lack of fund" and all that.

2. They don't want nigerians to be liberated/empowered by education so when they kill the available public schools it's only their children that will be able to afford uniedu among others.

I think our multifaceted problem in Nigeria is that of leadership especially political, not education leaders like our professors. Many of them are serious minded and are ready for the challenges but they are hampered by bad policies.

If it will mean students paying higher fees to make things better so be it like they do in oyinbo countries just that those ones are economically empowered by their states to pay any fee.

For now let them make the money available to our schools and now see if they will not perform wonders.

By the way I learnt that the abandoned Senate Building project at Ife is being reconstructed and that reconstructions are going on in other places. This is an instance of what more money can do in all our citidels of learning.

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More twisted than dreadlocks

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More twisted than dreadlocks

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More twisted than dreadlocks