The future of private universities in Nigeria

Abstract

The story of private universities in Nigeria started with the
establishment of Imerienwe University by late Dr. Nnana
Ukegbu, an attempt that gave rise to a series of court cases that
eventually led to its demise. Since then, the country has swung to
the current situation where private universities will soon be more
numerous than public universities. There are however enormous
problems hindering the fast growth of private universities,
particularly the problem of funding which leads to paucity of
student enrolment and the absence of high-quality lecturing staff.
This article argues that despite these problems the future of
private universities in Nigeria is very bright. Among the reasons
for this optimism is comparison with other similar climes;
inefficiency and absence of vision of successive Nigerian
governments which result in the obvious inadequacy of
reasonable investment in education; perennial mismanagement
fueled by corrupt interest of many segments of the public in the
universities leading to continuous lowering of standards. We
argue that the scenario in basic and secondary level education in
Nigeria where the decay in public schools means that the
country’s best schools are private schools will certainly replay at
the universities level in no distant future.