Vice-Chancellor, University of the Niger, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, has advocated continuous review of the nation’s university curricula as a way of making Nigerian graduates nationally relevant and globally competitive.
   
He stated that tertiary institutions in the country have been working with old curricula, stressing that it had accounted for the ill performance and demoralisation of graduates across the country.
   
In an interview with The Guardian, Nebo reiterated the need to declare a national emergency on education, saying it would help chart the right path and restore the original intentions of setting up universities.
   
He frowned at the recent hike in electricity tariffs in higher institutions, stressing that it had impeded not only operations but also their core mandates, especially research.
   
“Once the energy cost is extremely high, there is no way the universities can sustain operations, especially research. The government removed subsidies without doing something to ameliorate the impact. When it comes to electricity, a class of people should not be paying maximum rates. Instead of high energy costs, internet bandwidths should be made available to all tertiary institutions as a national infrastructure,” he said.
   
Nebo stated that the University on the Niger, owned by the Diocese on the Niger (Anglican Communion), has made the study of Chinese Language compulsory for its students following the volume of business developments by the Chinese in Africa.
 
“We have made Chinese language compulsory for every undergraduate because of the way China is almost taking over Africa; it might be difficult to connect business developments that have come with them if one is deficient in Chinese language.”