Quote from Sunday on ,

In a LinkedIn post last month, a Nigerian lecturer in Cyprus, Ifeanyi Obi, stated that during his undergraduate studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he studied Architecture and Building Technology, he managed to graduate with a second-class lower degree.

He stated that in 2018 after dusting off his academic woes in Nigeria, he proceeded to apply for a master’s degree in Cyprus where he earned high honours and afterwards graduated as valedictorian in his PhD studies.

Obi said after his PhD, he was offered a place in the university as a lecturer and four years later, in 2021, he became an Associate Professor of Construction Technology at the American University of Cyprus.

In March this year, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, disclosed that more than 2.1 million students were currently studying in Nigerian universities.

But caught in the web of harsh learning environments, poor lecturer-student interface and incessant strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, prolonging semesters/sessions, the students were often exhausted mentally.

For some who struggle to graduate, they earn unimpressive results which cannot withstand the tough competition in the thorny labour market. Many Nigerian students pursue education overseas upon graduation and some even go abroad for undergraduate studies. Apart from attending exalted varsities, Nigerian graduates go as far as attending unpopular schools in Europe, Asia including African countries–chief among them Ghana and South Africa.

According to data from the Migration Policy Institute in 2017, Nigerians in the US make up the most educated of all national groups- at least 61 per cent of Nigerians in the US hold a bachelor’s degree. This figure is striking compared to statistics of other educated groups in the US–31 per cent for the total foreign-born population and 32 per cent for the US-born population. The mobility of Nigerian scholars is driven by the desire for quality education and to maximise their potential.

 

In a 2021 report by a French agency for the promotion of higher education, international student services, and international mobility, Campus France, Nigeria recorded 76,338 students travelling abroad to study in 2018. But by the year 2020, the number increased. Nearly 100,000 Nigerian students enrolled in foreign educational institutions, according to a German-based educational service provider, International Consultants for Education and Fairs focusing on international student mobility.

The figures will increase in the following years as more Nigerian students apply to foreign universities for undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

In 2018, the Regional Director, Cambridge International, Sub-Saharan Africa, Juan Visser, during a programme organised by stakeholders, said students from Nigeria can compete favourably with students from anywhere in the world. Acclaim many Nigerian students in foreign institutions have lived up to – even those who performed abysmally while studying in Nigeria. Among many Nigerians who had performed exceptionally abroad was Miss Christiana Udoh, who in 2018 was awarded the Dudley Newitt Prize for Experimental Excellence at the Imperial College, London, United Kingdom. The award was announced during the Dudley Newitt Lecture held on the university campus.

The school management also awarded a scholarship to Udoh, who was the first Nigerian to receive the award, for what the institution described as her impressive performance during Advanced Masters studies in Chemical Engineering. The Akwa Ibom State Government awarded her scholarship to the tune of $20,000. In July 2021, 30 Nigerian scholars got scholarships totalling $4.35m from the United States Consulate General in Lagos to attend American universities and colleges for the 2021/2022 academic session.

Commenting on the unique performances of Nigerian students abroad, the National Chairman, ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said lack of funding of Nigerian institutions was one of the major problems affecting the nation’s education sector.

He said, “The problem with Nigeria’s education is not the students, neither is it the lecturers but it is about the system in place. In the ’70s and ’80s, people were coming in from other countries to study in Nigeria. Lecturers were coming in from all over the world to Nigeria to teach. But all that has changed since the government relegated our education to a state of unimportance – plaguing it with underfunding and neglect. Any Nigerian that goes abroad and performs well shouldn’t come as a surprise because we are naturally smart people.”

Osodeke said that he currently participates in an educational programme sponsored by the German government; with participants from Europe, America, and other African countries. He added that in the four years he attended the programme, Nigerian students always came first after evaluations. He added that when he asked the lecturers from other countries what they thought about the development, they also submitted that Nigerian students were brilliant.

 

He further said that Nigerians need to devote more attention to education because was no substitute for education if it hoped to move forward as a nation.