The Nigerian Senate has ordered an immediate halt to the processing of bills seeking the establishment of new universities, polytechnics, and other tertiary institutions. Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele and Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced the directive on Wednesday, citing a Federal Government moratorium designed to consolidate and strengthen existing schools rather than expand the system. Akpabio claimed that several newly established universities exist largely on paper without permanent sites, and argued that the priority must now shift from expansion to quality enhancement.
This sudden concern for educational quality and infrastructure is laughable. It is the same Senate that has spent years rubber-stamping the creation of new universities, many of which were political constituency projects handed out to lawmakers without any plan for funding, staffing, or physical infrastructure. The same lawmakers who are now crying about schools existing on paper were the ones who passed the bills to create those paper schools in the first place. They did not ask for feasibility studies then. They did not check if there was land or a budget. They just wanted something to campaign with.
And the hypocrisy does not stop at the legislative chambers. Earlier this year, President Bola Tinubu’s administration approved the establishment of 33 new universities, bringing the total number in the country to 309. Just months later, the government is suddenly freezing new institutions because they cannot fund the ones they have. Where was the concern for consolidation when Tinubu was signing off on 33 new institutions?
The truth is that this moratorium is not about protecting education. It is about hiding a massive failure. The government has refused to properly fund the existing universities. It has diverted 30 percent of TETFund revenue to bankroll its student loan scheme. It has refused to meet the full demands of ASUU, leaving universities at the mercy of constant strikes. The infrastructure in public universities is collapsing. Students live in dilapidated hostels, study in overcrowded lecture halls, and graduate into an economy where there are no jobs.
Instead of fixing these problems, the Senate wants a five-to-seven-year moratorium to “focus resources.” But the resources are not being focused on education. They are being spent on luxury SUVs for APC youth leaders, N37 billion presidential travel bills, and inflated road contracts for political cronies. If the Senate truly wanted to enhance the quality of existing schools, it would not need a moratorium. It would demand that President Tinubu release the funds meant for education and stop treating the sector as an afterthought.
This is a classic Nigerian government maneuver. Create a mess, watch it fall apart, and then announce a moratorium to “fix” it while doing absolutely nothing to address the root causes. The Senate is not consolidating education. It is consolidating its own incompetence. And millions of Nigerian students are the ones paying the price.
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