Nigerian universities awarding degrees to illiterates not worthy in character & learning—Attahiru Jega
Prof. Attahiru Jega, former national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has lamented that many universities in Nigeria were producing graduates who were illiterate and not worthy in character and learning.
Jega, who spoke at the 14th convocation lecture of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), decried the decline in the quality of graduates from Nigerian universities.
He said, “After four or five years of study in a tertiary institution, especially in a university, whenever we mention that someone has been found worthy in learning and in character, people tend to wonder whether learning and character necessarily go together. Well, they do not.
“One can have learning and even be considered learned, as lawyers refer to it, but have no good character, I’m sorry to say. Also, one can be certificated without learning anything or learning much and yet have good character.
“But the expectation is that university graduates are positioned for the ideal of having both good learning and character. Now, if this ideal has been approximated in Nigerian universities in the past, it now remains a mere aspiration.
“In most cases, regrettably, our universities are certifying illiterates and awarding degrees in many cases to persons with unworthy character.
“This is an aberration. But the expectation is that university graduates are positioned for the ideal of having good learning and character. Why and how is this so? I can only say that there are complicated reasons and complex explanations, but that would be a subject for another lecture.”
Vice Chancellor of NOUN, Olufemi Peters, said that the convocation lecture had become a routine at the school and had provided an opportunity for guest lecturers to share knowledge and experience in a particular field.
He gave assurances that NOUN has championed a major revolution in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system of education in Nigeria and beyond.
