Nigeria Content Online

The Education
Rights Campaign (ERC) has called for the sack of the Minister of State
for Education, Kenneth Gbagi, over his call for the deregulation of the
university system in the country.

The group described
the statement as anti-poor comments, saying Mr Gbagi has been making
such confusing statements since his assumption of office. “Many of
these statements have created serious apprehension and misgiving in the
education sector as to the intention of the federal government towards
the funding of education,” the group stated. Mr Gbagi had recently,
while receiving the management of the National Universities Commission,
led by its Executive Secretary, Julius Okojie, in his office, said the
federal government should stop sponsoring the education sector,
claiming that if students could afford sponsoring themselves abroad,
they should be able to pay such money in Nigeria universities too.

The group however said if deregulation is introduced into the
university system, the education system will be destroyed by an
increase in fees and other costs of education beyond what students from
poor working background can afford. “The implication of this is that
[the] university education will now be the preserve of the rich few,
thus shutting out of school millions of youths from poor working class
backgrounds,” the group stated. “Deregulation is a pro-rich and
neo-liberal economic policy inspired by the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) as a means to continue to keep the economy and social services of
neo-colonial capitalist countries like Nigeria underdeveloped and
subject to the imperialistic interests of the advanced capitalist
countries.” The group therefore advised the federal government to
shelve the idea of deregulating the university system, saying that
“Nigerian students will not accept any policy that makes education the
preserve of the rich few.”