Teaching of
Economics in Nigerian universities has not witnessed substantial progress like
it happens in the case of its quasi-rivals such as Business Administration and
Accounting, who after all are offshoots of Economics that developed into
independent disciplines not more than one century and a half ago. Business
Administration has transformed into money making machine for Nigerian schools
who run Masters of Business Administration (MBA) that continue to attract
people with deep pockets such as bankers, employees of multinational
organisations and tax collectors. But, the fact of the matter is that, though,
many people continue to rush for MBAs their corresponding value in term of the
type of job they can get one into is fast declining. And, the explanation for
this is not far fetch; the standard under which these courses are offered
do not meet international standards, as many schools compromise standard in
order to make more money from big pocket students; ending up producing
graduates who fall below employers’ expectations. Thus, the rush to offer
professional courses such as the one mentioned has affected the ability of these
departments and their manpower to offer regular courses such B.sc and M.sc
further eroding the general standard of university education. In economic
department itself, professional courses such masters of banking and finance are
now seriously encroaching on regular academic programs due to lack of academic staffs
to cover both.
There are over hundred Nigerian universities
(both private and public) today, located across all the six geographical parts
of the country with substantial numbers located in the Southern part of the
country. The number of universities offering economics among these universities
number more than 50% of the total because of the popularity of the course and
the demand for it in the labour market. A university like University of Ibadan
(which is also the first university in Nigeria) boasts of the oldest department
of economics in the country that up till today comprises of sizeable number of
professors. The country’s main center for economic research (the equivalent of
America’s NBER) is based in the University of Ibadan, likewise the Nigerian
Economic Society (equivalent to the US American Economic Association). Other
universities that came after University of Ibadan such as Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, University of Nigeria Nsukka, University of Lagos, and
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, established their own economics departments
that were to play a prominent role in producing the earlier generation of
Nigerian economists. But, that is where it all stops as the Nigerian economists
and economic departments in it various universities are today the shadow of
there former selves; known for producing critical thinkers and scholars who
have contributed in formulating government policies as well as playing important
role among the community of academic economists around the world.
Some of the
prominent players in the formulation of the country’s economic policies were
locally trained. This is to tell you how good these departments were during
the 1970s and 1980s when graduates from Nigerian universities were on high
demand around the world, and Professors left their chairs in Europe to come to
Nigeria in order to take teaching appointments. Those that were produced during
those years include Prof. Charles Soludo former CBN governor (UNN), current CBN
governor Sanusi L. Sanusi (ABU), Minister of national planning Shamsudden Usman
(ABU), Mansur Mukhtar former finance minister (ABU), former Managing Director
of United Bank for Africa Toney Elumelu (Lagos), to mentioned only the key
players of the current period. One of the reasons for apparent decline in the status
of economics departments of Nigerian universities is absence of quality
teachers to help with the teaching and the researching of the discipline in the
universities which like most other departments have being affected by brain
drains in which good professors who have published in world renown academic
journals have gone abroad where there is better condition for teaching and
research. Some of those that cannot move
abroad have moved their services to the private sector where there is better
pay and working condition. The few quality professors that remain have divided
their attention between the department and their outside consultancy works. Thus,
at the end the one that pays the price is no other than the quality of
graduates being produced by these institutions.
Some of the world
acclaimed economic departments such as Massachusetts institute of technology
(MIT), Cambridge, Harvard, London school of economics, and Chicago boast of not
only a number of Nobel laureates but an alumni base that has defined the course
of economics over the last century and contributed to the development of the
World economy. In these places the quality of their teaching materials is
superb; their libraries and research centres the best in the world. No wonder
everyone wants to go there in order to pursue his academic interests. Their
academic staffs contributed to some of the best known Economic journals in the
World such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Econometrica, Journal of
political economy, Journal of monetary Economics, American Economic review,
Economic Letters, etc. They not only contributed to shaping the curricula of
economics around the World but defined it future direction. They adapt to
technological changes as they appeared on the horizon and help define its contribution
to business and economy; something you cannot say of Nigerian schools’ economic
departments. They support promising students who show academic excellence with
scholarship to further their studies something you hardly see here. Some of the
half bake graduates produced in Nigeria end up pursuing careers different from
the economic training they received at school.
There is little
contact between students and their lecturers apart from the occasional meetings
for the usual class lectures, this did not help the development of the students
into critical thinkers as they are left with the only mastery of what is
contain in the hand out, a kind of garbage-in-garbage out (a world of crammers).
This is contrary to what obtains else where, where apart from the class
meetings professors give students individual attention to discuss economic
matters with them and even help them to publish papers earlier in their career.
In his autobiography after he received the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1992
the eminent American economist Gary Becker described how the department
atmosphere was at Chicago where they were taught by great economists like
Milton Friedman, Gregg Lewis, and T. Schultz. On Friedman, Becker has this to
say, “He emphasized that economic theory was
not a game played by clever academicians, but was a powerful tool to analyze
the real world. His course was filled with insights both into the structure of
economic theory and its application to practical and significant questions.
That course and subsequent contacts with Friedman had a profound effect on the
direction taken by my research.”
Going back in time to 1930s, the department
of economics at Harvard of that period comprised of some of the world greatest
economist under one roof. These include Joseph Schumpeter, Alvin Hansen,
Seymour Harris, Edward Chamberlin, Edward Mason, and Wassily Leontief who helped
to inspire students that would later become world renown such as Paul Samuelson,
Lloyd Metzler, Paul Sweezy, Kenneth Galbraith, Abram Bergson, James Tobin, Richard
Musgrave, Richard Gilbert, Lloyd Reynolds, John P. Miller, and Richard Goodwin.
Across the Atlantic ocean at London school of economics (of the same period of
time) the economic department comprises academic staffs that include John R.
Hicks, Lionel Robbins, Friedrich Von Hayek Roy Allen,
Nicholas Kaldor, Abba Lerner and Richard Sayers. Thus, at the centre of the
success of any economic department around the world is the composition of
lecturers who are brilliant, hardworking, versatile, and highly motivated to contribute
to the development of the department by given there one hundred percent to
research and teaching. In Nigeria today it is only few departments that
comprises of more than five full time professors (and this is mostly restricted
to federal universities who paid professors in excess of N500, 000.00),
majority of these lecturers comprises of masters holders and others pursuing
their PhDs. And, the recruitment process into some of these departments have
become skewed in favour of those who are connected, and where merit is followed
some of the newly recruited tend to start looking for greener posture elsewhere
the moment they get what they want.
The curriculum in those departments also
needs some changes to reflect the changing reality of our time. Like most
things in Nigeria it is very difficult to introduce changes as those against it
will do everything possible to frustrate it. Many scholars and commentators
have emphasized the need to introduce courses that encourage free thinking and
brainstorming but instead the curriculum stick to syllabus that emphasize pure
mastery of the subjects in order to pass exam; as the only thing that matter is
the certificate that one will graduate with at the end of his program. And,
some of the lecturers are to blame for this scenario as they are accused of
using strict marking scheme that do not allowed for student own contributions
and research. Such lecturers are said to have given marks out according to what
they provided in their lecture handout. This explain the inability of the
graduating students to conduct any research of their own instead resorting to
stealing others ideas and works and putting their names on it. Outside the
school period, in their later places of work graduating student find it
difficult to contribute to freethinking and innovation- that develop their
places of work- what in reality Economics is all about. Though, economics is
considered to be a quantitative subject one will be surprised to find out that
a lot of economic students fear mathematics and statistics and consider them as
their number one enemies. But, how can one consider himself an economist when
he fears quantitative courses?
But, the death of research culture is not
only restricted to the students as the lecturers themselves find it
increasingly difficult to conduct researches. In those circumstances where they
wrote their papers they end up being published in departmental or faculty
journals that in most cases are of lower quality than international or national
journals. Then there is the proliferation of private journals in Nigeria who
accept any kind of paper in as much as the author pays them the publication fees.
Though, this problem is not restricted to Nigeria as is seen in other places
around the world, that does not means the Nigerian academic economist should
accept it. Though, not all fee paying journals are of low quality, there are a
lot many that do not deserve the name academic journal. The only national
economic journal of refute that remain in publication for over sixty years is
that published by Nigerian economic Society, Nigerian Journal of Economic and
Social Studies (NJESS) since 1959, the quality of the type of papers
contributed to the journal both from Nigeria and abroad attest to the
reputation of the journal in Nigerian academia. Other highly regarded journals
include the one being published by the central bank research department, CBN
Economic and Financial Review, and periodicals like that of Nigerian Deposit
Insurance Corporation. But, the aim of any aspiring academic economist is to
publish in world renown journals such as the ones I have made mention of earlier,
so as to get international recognition and not to restrict his papers to
national periodicals. Departmental conferences also have become the thing of
the past as departments of economics around the country find it difficult to
get the financial and human resources to organize such conferences, as was the
case before, when they organized international conferences that attracted world
renowned scholars from around the world. The proceedings of such conferences
later get published in the form of books thereby providing student and
lecturers with working materials of international standard base on their local
environment.
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