Why have Nigerian universities not taken advantage of endowment funds?
Four years ago, I had a discussion with the immediate past VC of UNN in California on what the university had in its endowment and he smiled and told me they are just beginning the process. The challenge is that the Nigerian universities are so focused on subvention they get from Federal Government and have not tapped into their alumni capability to get people that have graduated from the university to help them set up endowment. And the challenge this creates is that the research aspect of the universities are not as robust as it should be, because everybody is waiting for meager fund from the government. You talked about sending memos to former education ministers, what were the memos all about? About four years ago, you know in the education system, we had 11 ministers. Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i is the 12th person. I sent a memo stating how we should address the issue of fundamental education and build a structure that aligns with what happens in the elementary and secondary levels
