ASUU: We Can Fix Nigeria’s Higher Education, If We Truly Want To

By Akintunde Babatunde

Every time ASUU goes on strike, the country focuses on unpaid salaries and negotiations. But the real crisis runs deeper. Nigeria’s higher education system is too centralized, too rigid, and too disconnected from how modern universities actually function.

Across the world, the most successful universities are those that enjoy autonomy. While I really do not like to compare Nigeria with several Western countries because I understand our situation, history, and context are peculiar, I also think, as someone who has studied in Nigeria, the UK, and the US, I should be able to draw from my experience when offering ideas about my country. In the United States, universities design their own courses, set their standards, and negotiate directly with their staff. In the United Kingdom, while the government provides direction through national frameworks, universities still run their own affairs through independent councils and senates. Even in South Africa, public universities have significant autonomy, they make academic, financial, and administrative decisions while still being publicly funded. This freedom allows them to attract funding, form global partnerships, and compete internationally.

In Nigeria, everything sits in Abuja (an arrangement I detest so much). From salary structures to curriculum approval, universities depend on central decisions that often arrive late or not at all. This overcentralization has strangled innovation and created a culture of stagnation. When some of us were in college years ago, some lecturers boasted of using lecture notes from the 1980s for us, and not as a joke. Meanwhile, senior professors, after decades of service, earn less than ₦500,000 monthly. The system neither rewards excellence nor protects dignity. It is such a shame!

But in this same Nigeria, we have seen proof that universities can thrive when they are allowed to govern themselves. Covenant University is one clear example; it operates with independence, maintains consistent academic quality, and competes globally. That shows what is possible when institutions are given both freedom and responsibility.

If we truly want to fix higher education, we must do more than end strikes, we must end the structure that produces them. That means:

• Decentralizing university governance, allowing each institution to negotiate directly, set priorities, and adapt to its context.

• Developing a new funding model, one that mixes public subventions with performance-based research grants, private sector partnerships, and alumni endowments.

• Reforming academic welfare, ensuring that teaching and research are not treated as survival acts but as national service worth real compensation.

• Modernizing curricula and pedagogy, so universities can keep pace with emerging disciplines and digital tools.

Of course, one argument often raised is that granting universities full autonomy could lead to higher fees. That’s a fair concern — but it’s also where innovation comes in. Each university must find creative ways to generate revenue beyond tuition: through grants, endowments, partnerships, and alumni networks. We often don’t know what’s possible until we move away from this “feeding-bottle” arrangement where every institution waits for Abuja to release funds.

If universities understand that their ability to attract funding depends on their rankings, research output, and credibility, they will compete, collaborate, and ultimately perform better. And with the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) now in place, we can design a fair system that tiers tuition according to income level, ensuring access while encouraging responsibility. And that sense of responsibility matters. I remember a time when lecturers were on strike in the UK — they counted the number of days they didn’t work and refunded that part of tuition to students. Accountability and autonomy can co-exist; one reinforces the other.

We also need to be honest about something else: Nigeria doesn’t need too many federal universities with no useful structure or measurable quality. What we need are fewer, stronger institutions that actually work. The politicization of university creation must stop. Any university that cannot sustain itself should merge with another. See, if we are serious about reform, we must also be upright — because reform without integrity is just recycling failure.

And it is not impossible. The government is already restructuring Nigeria’s tax regime; that is all the proof we need to show that systemic reform is achievable when there is political will. The same energy should be applied to higher education.

A well-funded, well-governed university system benefits everyone: government, academia, students, and society. And if we ever need a reminder of why investment matters, we only need to look at where most Nobel laureates come from — universities that are well-funded, well-managed, and trusted to do their work.

Nigeria can build such a system, one grounded in autonomy, accountability, and ambition. We just have to mean it this time.

About The Author

Editorial Desk

See author's posts