Immediate past Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Martins Oloja, has advised the government to stop the licensing of new universities as political projects, but instead focus on establishing better tertiary institutions.

Oloja emphasised that education quality, not quantity, could deliver sustainable development goals, including the war on “multidimensional poverty” and “civic incompetence” in the country.

The former editor-in-chief of The Guardian stated this while delivering the 11th distinguished lecture of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, Ondo State, with the topic: “Can the Universities Trigger National Development Amid Economic Challenges?”

According to Oloja, governments can choose between funding the police force or quality public schools, which he stressed often creates a false positive correlation between education and crime, adding that providing disadvantaged urban youths with better schools can substantially reduce juvenile and adult crime.

He said: “It is time to call on the elders of the land, notably those that had enjoyed ‘the good old days’ in this same country when universities were universities, to support a motion that governments at all levels should stop all priority projects and declare a genuine emergency on education to invest in them consciously and sincerely.

“Here is why our leaders should intentionally and unapologetically prioritise education quality. As our leaders put on their thinking caps on what to do with our apparent underdevelopment, they should remember first that education – quality, not quantity – can deliver sustainable development goals, including the war on multidimensional poverty and civic incompetence we notice all over the place.

“This is a time to tell them to pay attention to better rather than more universities whose products cannot contribute to national development, no thanks to poor funding.”

In his comment, the outgoing Vice Chancellor of UNIMED, Prof Adesegun Fatusi, who commended Oloja for the lecture, stated that effort must be made for the country’s university system to live up to its reputation.

He said: “How can the system become better? How can the system give up this reputation? How can we become a touchstone for a transformation?”