INVESTIGATION: Does The University of Lagos Have Any Sense or Sensibility?
No one forced them to do it but a few days ago, in all its wisdom, the University of Lagos decided to release this statement and even published it on the school’s website.
Let us quote the whole thing:
INTRODUCTION OF DEMURRAGE FOR UNCOLLECTED CERTIFICATES
“The vice chancellor approved the introduction of demurrage for uncollected certificates by graduates, six months from the day of graduation.
This measure was introduced in view of the accumulation of uncollected graduates.
Consequently, all 2016/2017 graduates of the university of Lagos are enjoined to collect their certificates from the Faculty Officers while graduates of previous years should collect theirs from the certificate office with immediate effect. They have a grace to collect their certificates without accrued demurrage up till December 2018.
All uncollected certificates will attract a demurrage of one thousand naira only per year with effect from 1st January, 2019.
All affected graduates will pay the appropriates fees at the Cash Office.
If approved, the publicity will be done through the underlisted channels:
Information Flash
Radio Unilag
The University Website
University Social Media
The Student Information Platform
When you read this statement well, you see very clearly the problem with Nigerian universities and the reason why they never want to remove their mouths from the government’s breast and why the mere mention of ‘autonomy’ is like a curse to them. Under these conditions, progress is impossible.
What does this statement tell us? To put it simply — Unilag does not know where its former students are. Anyone who has graduated from a half-decent foreign university will understand this point. A big part of a university’s selling point is what happens to people once they have left the school. The more successful they are, the more the university is able to guarantee its future by attracting more people who want to be like those successful people. So for any ‘normal’ university, not knowing where its former students are is out of the question because that is a threat to its very survival.
Gimme that sweet government money
But in Nigeria this is not the case. Why? Because that incentive to stay alive has been taken away by government dependency. Unilag will survive even if its former students end up as beggars on the road. They don’t care. This abnormal situation has been so normalised that when you mention anything about normalising the situation (being incentivised to look after your own future is what is normal), they lose their minds and start shouting. This abnormality has been so normalised that Unilag can publish a statement like this publicly and think nothing of it. As I have said repeatedly — 70% of Nigeria’s federal education budget goes to higher institutions while lower levels of education fight for scraps. Even TETFUND which started life as ETF to fund all levels of education has now been taken over by higher institutions completely. This kind of foolish behaviour is what is being funded.
Unilag is telling people to come back to pick up their certificates or else it will charge them ‘demurrage’ for holding it after a period of time. It did not check its records to see which certificates remain uncollected and then send even an email to those people. How can it do so? It does not know who they are and cannot be bothered to find out. Who email epp? As long as allocations keep rolling in, we are good. It has no process in place to automatically distribute certificates to people who own them even if it charges a small fee for doing so.
I completed an MBA here a few years ago. As soon as the graduation date was fixed, the school sent me a form asking if I was going to attend the ceremony in person. If I chose not to attend, I could fill a form with my address details and the certificate would be mailed out to me a few days after the event. I think they charged a small fee for that service (I don’t remember because I attended and collected my certificate on the day).
But there’s more to it. The university designed the system in such a way that it collects my address at graduation because that is the critical point. After all, once you leave a school, life takes over and you might not really have time to keep up. So for people not attending the ceremony, it is the perfect opportunity to collect their details — email and home address. It becomes the university’s job to keep an eye on its former students so it can use them to guarantee its survival. Nearly 5 years after, they still send me emails letting me know how the school is doing and what some of my former classmates are up to. They send me magazines and sometimes they even call when they want to ask me for money for something they are doing.
Autonomy by Alumni
And this is a critical point — former students are an important source of funding for universities. A few years ago, a Guardian report showed that donations by former students to UK universities had reached record levels:
British universities are imitating their American counterparts in persuading former students to open their wallets as the number of alumni making donations to higher education institutions rose to record levels last year.
Despite the grim economic background and the ending of a government-backed matching funds scheme, universities and colleges accrued total donations worth £774m in 2011–12 according to a national survey of higher education fundraising. This is a 14% increase on the previous year’s total of £676m and nearly £200m more than the total raised in 2009–10.
The total, which includes pledges of support for the next five years and gifts in kind as well as cash gifts, came from 213,000 donors — itself a new record level — including just under 170,000 former students who made contributions.
Some are even donating from the grave
The old school ties between alumni — former students and graduates — and their alma mater are now extending towards the grave, as institutions also recorded increased donations through legacies. Bequests in 2011–12 amounted to £62m, making legacies worth 11% of the cash raised from donations. That however remains a fraction of the legacy income enjoyed by the UK’s major medical charities.
This is what Nigerian universities don’t want — because this kind of money is hard work to obtain and comes with accountability and scrutiny. It is much easier to collect money from government (those ones too don’t know who are giving money anyway). Next time the word ‘autonomy’ comes up in the inevitable next ASUU strike, pay attention to what the schools are saying.
Safiticate Demurrage
Unilag should be worried that its former students have found a way to carry on with their lives without their certificate. After all, if they were being asked for the certificate every day, they would surely not leave it with the school to incur ‘demurrage’ (what an idiotic word for a university to use in this context). But when a university has had even the most basic survival instincts stripped away, it becomes totally insulated from reality — it actually thinks such a threat will lead to a stampede of people coming to pick up their certificates to avoid paying ‘demurrage’. My ‘certificate’ is still with the Olabisi Onabanjo ‘University’, more than 15 years since I left the school and I have not once set foot in the place ever since. I have never once received even an email from them since then — do they even know my email address?
Can you not see how my life has been a mess due to not having this certificate? Knowing how most of these universities are foolish together, I look forward to OOU charging me ‘demurrage’ for holding on to my certificate. If anyone from OOU is reading this, please get in touch to discuss my certificate — I have some freshly designed insults I have not yet launched and I will like to test them on you.
So back to the question in the title of this piece. The answer is No.
We need universities to help think Nigeria out of its myriad and accumulating problems. But look at what is going on there. Is this one thinking? And this is one of the ‘better’ universities in Nigeria. So imagine what is going on elsewhere. Someone needs to face down these universities and force change down their throats. Because this change is critical for Nigeria to move forward. But I am doubtful that we are going to get it from people who don’t even know if they are nPDP or rAPC.
Wait for the revolution, people. ASUU and university administrators are among the people I’m going to deal very severely with once I have finished with NNPC.
