ROBUST research and development (R&D) funding? How can we hope for a better tomorrow if today’s beneficiaries of student loans cannot find job tomorrow to pay back? How can education quality that can serve the needs of the 21st century be guaranteed when any close friends of the president or governor who may not have any competence or capacity can be appointed Minister and Commissioner of Education? How can we lead the black people of the world in 21st century if there is no robust remuneration policy to attract good teachers at all levels? How can education quality be achieved…
Author: Martins Oloja
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PROFESSOR Na’Allah, former VC, Kwara State University and University of Abuja continues his support for more universities:“…We need to rethink our university education in Nigeria and it is very urgent because part of the crisis we have today in terms of being one economy nation is that our universities are not responding adequately to our realities. We should move towards a university system that is functional and performing its expected roles”. Prof. Kimse Okoko, former Chairman, Committee of Pro-Chancellors too once lent his cautious voice to those in support of more universities: and so to him: “If you go by…
South Africa is about Quality SOUTH Africa’s population is 64.7 million. All Universities (37), Public Universities (26), and Private Universities (9). The system also includes research institutions (30), South Africa has 26 public universities, all parts of Universities in South Africa, distributed across nine provinces. Each province has at least one university, with Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape establishing their own institutions in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Most universities are found in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape, which house major metropolitan areas. Top Universities in South Africa – UNIRANKS® 2025: The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest…
THE QS ranking placed five Japanese universities on the top 100 university list: University of Tokyo (22), Kyoto University (33), Tokyo Institute of Technology (58), Osaka University (71) and Tohoku University (82). Japanese universities also stand out among Asian universities: University of Tokyo ranked 8th in the ranking in 2019. Government attracting international students. In May 2012, the Japanese government initiative Global 30 launched, which aims to increase the number of international students in the country from 140,000 to 300,000. Thanks to this, universities offer simplified entry procedures, training programs conducted in English and assistance in finding work for foreigners.…
AT the moment, there are about 300 universities in Nigeria. As of early 2025, Nigeria has approximately 33 Federal Polytechnics, 60, State Polytechnics, and 27 Federal Colleges of Education, and 82 State Colleges of Education, plus some unspecified number of private Polytechnics and Colleges of Education. While the number of universities in Nigeria soars to 300, driven mainly by private institutions, experts have been warning that declining quality may threaten the future of higher education. This rapid expansion is largely driven by private universities, which now make up more than half of all institutions in the country. While this surge…
THE recent actions of the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) Nigeria, Mr. Oluwatosin Ajayi, in compensating individuals wrongfully arrested and detained by the agency, serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of attitude in leadership. This gesture not only showcases the DG’s commitment to upholding human rights but also highlights the impact of attitude on organisational culture and public perception. The DG DSS’s decision to compensate the wrongfully arrested individuals and offer apologies to others demonstrates a significant shift towards accountability and transparency. This attitude is reflected in the DG’s directive to investigate and discipline officers…
“THERE is not much talking now. A silence falls upon them all. This is no time to talk of hedges and fields, or the beauties of any country. Sadness and fear and hate, how they well up in the heart and mind, whenever one opens pages of these messengers of doom. Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end. The sun pours down on the earth,…
PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu will continue celebration of Nigeria’s 65th Independence anniversary on October 8, 2025 in Rivers State with formal commissioning of Nigeria’s first indigenous oil export terminal in 50 years at Ikuku Town, Andoni Local Government, Rivers State. So, what is the news here? An indigenous firm, Green Energy International Limited has completed an onshore crude oil export terminal at Otakikpo, Rivers State, which is aimed at reducing crude evacuation costs and addressing bottlenecks that have hindered Nigeria’s crude oil production targets for years. The commissioning of the oil facility by Nigeria’s leader will be the second breakthrough…
WE can always remember him for this: “I want to be remembered for courage for my faith … the most important thing is my faith in my life…” A single bullet silenced his voice on that platform on September 10, 2025 but it can’t erase his influence, his legacy, and his testimony for Jesus Christ. Just a few days before his death, he posted this: “Jesus defeated death so you can live.” Billy Graham’s son, Franklin noted this about Charlie: “He wasn’t afraid or ashamed to talk about his faith. Watching him makes me want to be even bolder! I…
IT has been a week of stories that touch the heart. It is a time that reminds us that too much politics without attention to weightier matters of governance may have robbed Nigeria of a place at the table of the Soccer World Cup, (USA-2026). It is a week that has challenged the exceptionalism of the United States where a 22-year old Utah-born, Tyler Robinson assassinated a very vocal conservative activist, Charlie Kirk, (32) an ally President Donald Trump. It is also a week young Nepali protesters brought down a corrupt government that intentionally shut down social media sites it…
THE President’s curious volte-face on NTA’s newsroom and boardroom operations he recently disrupted shouldn’t be construed as a wet blanket on a serial I began here last week – expediency of overhauling our national broadcaster, the NTA as the authentic ‘Voice of Africa’ and the black race. I was earlier disoriented by the president’s reversal of his earlier appointments of a new Director General and Executive Director, News (EDN) for the public broadcaster. The president’s radical move touched off the first part of this serial encouraging the president of Nigeria to consolidate on the good job of overhauling the NTA…
MEDIOCRE coverage of President Bola Tinubu’s recent diplomatic mission to Brazil has again triggered good reasons the president should solidify his recent remarkable executive appointments at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). I have personally interpreted the unexpected disruption to mean that the president means business, after all on restructuring of the national broadcasters to serve Nigeria’s overriding public interest. There is a little doubt that the President who has been widely criticised for tapping too many mediocrities into even his cabinet, is beginning to turn over a new leaf by his surprise talent hunt of Rotimi Pedro and Stella Din…
LET’s not get it twisted, this week’s noisy Mission To Tokyo has again exposed consequences of absence of ambassadors in our foreign missions for two years. Nigeria has again been under fire at the just concluded Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-9) in Japan after observers noticed that the country’s booth was left unmanned despite the presence of a large government delegation. The TICAD9 2025 Nigeria’s President attended has been so mismanaged and poorly explained that a Nigerian entrepreneur based in Japan, Idris Ayodeji Bello’s alarm on social media, expressing embarrassment that Nigeria was the only country without representation…
What UK Newspapers Do You Read And Why? YEARS ago, on a very clever and funny British sitcom about government (yes, I know, but it really was clever, funny and very popular), called Yes, Prime Minister there was a lovely bit of dialogue on the subject of who reads which newspapers: PM Jim Hacker: Don’t tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers: The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by people…
MY main task here is to deconstruct the relevance of two books written by a partisan journalist. Ike Abonyi’s declaration of himself as a partisan journalist should be curious. The work is a complex and dangerous combination of journalism and public relations, a subject I have been researching for a ground-breaking work: ‘Journalism Isn’t Public Relations’. Ike Abonyi has challenged the central idea of my ‘hypothesis’ as he has now dared to ask public policy and politics experts: what is wrong with being a partisan journalist? He is simplifying a question: why can’t journalists be partisan too in a society…
NIGERIA’s Super Falcons were on Monday this week hosted to a grand state reception at the Presidential Villa in Abuja by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in celebration of their historic victory at the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco. The elated president lavished praises, national honours, and significant rewards on the team for clinching a record-extending 10th continental title, which came via a dramatic 3–2 come-back win over hosts Morocco in Rabat. During a grand reception at the State House, Abuja President Tinubu hailed the team’s fighting spirit and the inspiration they gave to the nation. “The…
AS I had noted in the first issue of this article for the attention of the Visitor to the University of Abuja: ‘How is the University of Abuja established in 1988 by an Act of the National Assembly as a federal government owned tertiary institution affected by the power of the FCT Minister to revoke plots of land for overriding public interest?’ As I was saying, the FCT Minister should visit the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and other faculties and see things for himself before insulting them as land grabbers. The reasons for the needs assessment by the FCT…
“When you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice.”― Ancient Sanskrit saying THE word on marble above shows the organic source of the topic. It is from a classic from Robin Sharma, the original ‘Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’. The topic derives from his book, “Who Will Cry When You Die?” It is a time to resort to motivational writing for our leaders who don’t seem to be listening to what oracles and sages in the civil society including the media have…
ANOTHER wind of time has blown me to the University of Abuja, I once tagged as the only federation university in the country. Yes, in my commentary on the curious policies that preceded the first major Visitor’s intervention, which led to the current interim administration at the university early this year, I had noted that the University of Abuja, renamed Yakubu Gowon University, shouldn’t be regarded as just a federal university. I claimed then that the federal university should be similarly regarded as a federation university that should not be trifled with, in the capital of the federation, Abuja. I…
OUR great country generally believed to be on the last lap of journey through the wilderness to get to the promised land, needs to benefit from some lessons of history as a news item. Yes there comes a time when history is worth treating as it were a breaking news item. And here is the thing, our political leaders and their followers who are becoming increasingly careless and reckless in their political speeches and actions should learn from this part of history of consequences of political blunders in global context. It is now a small world of unlearning and relearning…