KANO STATE GETS APPROVAL FOR ITS FIRST EVER PRIVATE UNIVERSTY
KANO STATE GETS APPROVAL FOR ITS FIRST EVER PRIVATE UNIVERSTY
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
July 4, 2018
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It is with great sense of Joy that, I got the news of the approvals of the Skyline University, which is the first ever Kano state based private university. This is also the "second based" private university in the North - West Geo-political Zone after Al-Qalam University, Katsina.
As the "son" of North - West Geo-political Zone, it baffles me to note that, despite our huge population, richmen and the seven states of : Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto and Zamfara we hitherto have only one private university in Katsina state.
Out of the 75 private universities in the country, only fifteen (15) are located in the North. There are 12 in North -Central, 2 in the North -East and now 2 in the North-West Zone .The South -West Zone alone has about 30 private universities. However, the Executive Secretary, of NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed said: "...the country has 42 Federal, 47states and 75 private universities, making a total of 164 universities..." (Daily Trust, July 4,2018).
In my view, this number is grossly inadequate in comparison to the growing population of our country. About 1.5 million students write Unified Matriculation Tertiary Examinations on annual basis for the existing 89 public Federal and states universities in the country with the vacancies of less than 500,000 students for admission yearly . Even if each of these available public universities has the capacity to admit 5,000 students to which is certainly not possible , we will only end up having 445,000 students being admitted yearly with more than one million students without admission . The number of admission seekers keep on increasing annually. More private universities could fill the admission gab of the country .
Some people will argue that, only the children of the privilege ones will afford the "cost" of private universities as such it is not important. For me, If one has a deeper look at it as far the low of "Demand" and "Supply" is concerned, one will nothing but agree with me that, the higher the number of private universities in the country will be the lower the cost of private education. Availabity will bring about competition for affordable "cost" and "quality". Besides that, if private universities are built, people right from construction stages, will get a lot of Jobs.
More so, apart from Lecturers, Senior /Junior Non- Academic staff and other auxiliary staff; such as: cleaners, and gardners etc., will be employed upon its completion which is in addition to the development of the area in terms of business activities .
Northerners must know that all the private universities established in Southern Nigeria were and or are being established by their rich individuals and faith based organizations not their governments. It is equally important for Northerners to know that, those universities were established not for "charity" but were for "education" and business purposes. It seems like education is not our priority here in the North .
It is sad to note that, most Northern rich men prefer sending their children to schools abroad rather than establishing private universities in the North. It will do us good if we retrace our steps and start establishing private universities here at home. Moreover, the religion and cultural values of our children will be more protected at home than abroad.
The Northern rich men must be reminded that, investment in education should and or must not be left to government alone . I am not calling for the establishment of more private universities for charity but for education and business enterprises as In other places.
Permit me to speak some home truth. In my observation, majority of our rich people are not interested in investment whether in schools or industries or manufacturing and or media etc., except of course, for the few ones among them.
In my humble suggestion ,our faith based organizations in the North as a way of ending "begging" from "worshippers " should establish "universities" not for "charity" but as a "business enterprise" to serve as a way of sustaining their places of worships, In my view, this will ensure their true independence which will enable them speak truth to "power" without fear or favour. We also need rich individuals to invest in its.
May God bless Nigeria!