sector thrived better under the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo than the present administration.
Mbanefo said at the assumption of office in 1999, the Obasanjo-led administration particularly brought value to the university system but stated that such value had vanished six years after he left office.
The former UNN vice-chancellor, who spoke at the launch of a book – One and a half Centuries of the University in Nigeria, 1868 – 2011: A Historical Account – at Godfery Okoye University in Enugu, on Friday, said successive governments failed to maintain the standard set by the former president in universities and other areas of the education sector.
Prof. Nduka Okafor, Emeritus Professor of Microbiology, Godfery Okoye University, authored the book.
However, Mbanefo said it was only when Obasanjo became President that he could buy four tyres for his car at a go.
“Before he became president, I would borrow N250 to buy just a tyre. Before 1999, it was even difficult taking my colleagues out on a treat,” the university don said.
“When Obasanjo was leaving, we practically had the best brains in our university system and our thinking was that successive governments would maintain the standard he set and even better it. That didn’t happen as we are now left with lecturers who see teaching as a meal ticket.
“It is so bad now that many of these professors who were leaving as at the time Obasanjo was leaving in 2007, have continued to render service to the system because if they don’t, the university system would long have collapsed in Nigeria.
“I am saying that something must be done to bring up and nurture the best of the young ones to take up the teaching jobs in the universities, and not leave it in the hands of people who do it just to put food on the table.”
The author, Okafor supported Mbanefo’s views.
He said, “The book chronicles the history of Nigerian universities and paints the picture of what the ideal university should look like.
