Nigeria is run like a bonded colony
This our country is great! People opening 20 universities in one fell swoop while existing private universities are grinding on admissions, a few are at the throes of death. The other time, JAMB had to bring down minimum admission marks so as to assist private universities get a feed of less gifted admission seekers. But that's not even the issue, for now.
Where are the employment opportunities for these graduates? You would have made a massive impact if all that money was pooled together to buy off Ajaokuta, for example, and unleash steel power over Africa! These are the other areas begging for critical investment and guaranteed to provide massive gainful employment:
1. Sheet and automobile glass.
2. Ceramics
3. Sugar and durum wheat.
4. Corn and soybeans (currently imported to make livestock feed)
5. Aluminium and aluminium alloys
6. Stone polishing (we import $4b worth of polished stones yearly)
7. Rubber processing
8. Timber and wood curing. 99% of our furniture makers use fresh, not fired wood. They are migrating to imported MDF now anyway.
9. MDF, MDF, plywood. Is Piedmont in Edo still working?
10. Leather. (We export our precious angora goat skins raw to Italy; they return in in 100k shoes most Nigerians cannot afford)
11. Dairy. 99.9% of our dairy foods are imported
You are import dependent even in staples yet you choose to spend billions setting up schools without setting up what those graduates will work at and you believe your statistics will be healthy in the years to come! This is how we produce graduates who have to line up for politicians 'empowerment' or go out riding okada
Imagine a situation where the university licentiate is working with the Ministry of Trade and Commerce and they schedule an enlightenment meeting with these wannabe university proprietors. Who knows,maybe ego won't stand in the way and they will be able to arrive at some more constructive investments.
I think these things need a second and third look. Call in the NBS and let them plot the graphs so you can see where the labour market and the graduate mills are headed in the next years ahead. There must be data analysis for realistic planning purposes and university licensing shouldn't just be about knowing somebody who knows somebody or having big cash stashed away.