The Terribly Bad Idea Of Another State University In Benue, by Sesugh Akume

Rumour originated by a social media platform that promotes Benue governor, Father Hyacinth Alia, has it that a Benue State University of Science, Technology and Agriculture is in the offing. It remains a rumour (an unconfirmed story) to the extent that the governor’s, and the  government’s official communications officials and channels are silent about it. There has been no announcement, much less a rationale for this endeavour, which by all intents and purposes is a terribly bad idea at this time.

Insecurity in Benue is escalating, with over 2,650 deaths reported in the past 14 months due to violent attacks, primarily from armed herders and bandits. This has, among other things, disrupted agricultural activities, leading to increased poverty, hunger, displacement, and food inflation not only in the state, which is ‘The Food Basket of the Nation’ but the country at large.

Many communities face daily threats, and with20 of the 23 local government areas affected, the situation has created a climate of fear and instability that hampers economic growth and development, it has created a climate of fear, instability, and uncertainty  that hampers productivity, economic growth and development. The havoc this has wrought has been grossly underreported, understated, and undermined.

The most recent Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report reveals that 75 percent of the Benue population is dimensionally poor. Meaning that more than 7 out of 10 the people in the state lack access to good health, education, living standards, or work.

The poor state of basic primary health care facilities, which are mostly dead or dysfunctional, for which residents are compelled, in some situations, up to travel 70 kilometers to access, leading innumerable preventable deaths, is no news. A state where less than half the local government areas are open defecation free.

The number of out-of-school children is surging daily. Benue is also among the top 12 states with the highest illiteracy rates among children aged 7-14.

In my own Logo local government, there are only 10 government-owned junior secondary schools under the Universal Basic Education (UBE)programme, with less than 5,000 students enrolled and with a grand total of 36 UBE (teaching and non-teaching) staff for an entire local government! In practical terms, some schools have only a single government teacher!

The idea of UBE is 9 continuous years of compulsory, free, basic education, which anticipates that every child seamlessly transitions from 6 years of primary education to 3 years of junior secondary education. In plain English, in Logo, less than 5,000 children are currently in the Basic 7–9, who made it from primary education. The rest nobody can account for. And, these less-than-5,000 are in only 10 surviving schools, with most of the schools having only a single teacher! This is the same story across all the other local government areas.

Yet, there are tens of thousands of well-trained teachers who are outright unemployed or underemployed earning, in some cases, as low as 10 thousand naira a month teaching in private schools or doing some jobs that are below their capacity. Many commercial motorcycles and tricycle riders, as well as taxi drivers are graduates, some with postgraduate qualifications, mostly of Benue State University, which produces the highest graduates yearly in the state.

Any endeavour in Benue that doesn’t directly work towards addressing these problems, is misplacement of priority. A state which in 2024 has yet to eradicate open defecation; whose children can’t read, and are in their hundreds of thousands out of school; where poverty and hungry are rife and increasing; a state whose teeming youth population is unemployed and underemployed; where people can’t sleep with their eyes closed for fear of being killed and/or kidnapped, and therefore can’t be productive especially with their farming/food production, their mainstay; has no business setting up yet another university to produce more knowledge which is not used and more graduates with no certain future. The funds and energy for this needless endeavour are best channelled towards meeting these basic needs, first and foremost. No responsible person goes for the frills without first meeting the basics. This terribly bad idea of yet another state university deserves only in one treatment: to be discarded in the abyss where it came from.

To be continued…

Sesugh Akume, a public policy analyst writes from Abuja.