A university education in Nigeria in this 21st century human universe should serve as one of the strongest and the most effective weapons against poverty and ignorance. A good education should naturally opens the doors to many life's opportunities for the educated persons. The last 10 years in Nigeria can be called the age or the era of mass explosion or the rapid growth in the numbers of private university ownership. The owners of these privately owned universities are either religious organizations, such as the big Churches and Mosques, or the wealthy Nigerians. These universities were set up with the primary purpose of supporting the efforts of the federal and the state governments in Nigeria in providing university education for Nigerians and for the expansion of the university education opportunities to the millions of ordinary Nigerian youths.
How readily or easily affordable and accessible are these private university education to the millions of Nigeria's high school graduates that need them for a better future? The average tuition rates for these universities run from about $3,000 to $4,000 a year (450,000 Naira to 600,000 annually) in a country that has 80% of her citizens live on chronic poverty of about $1 to $2 a day and with millions of Nigeria's workers earning poverty wages ($112 a month minimum wage) as well as a nation with youth unemployment rate of over 47%.
Who is real fooling who in Nigeria today with these privately owned universities? Are these private universities truly meeting the needs of the millions of the ordinary Nigerian high school graduates who need the university education for a better and a brighter future but cannot afford one? Where are the available scholarships, financial aids, low interest loans, student work programs, tuition waiver programs and grants from these universities for these poor Nigerian students who are academically qualified and want university education but they cannot afford them? Time will surely tell.
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