Afe Babalola, SAN, founder of the Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), has identified the proliferation of substandard and mushroom universities as the biggest menace facing quality education in the country.
He stated this in Ado-Ekiti while being conferred with the fellow of King’s College, London, for his transformative contributions to education and the society.
Babalola urged the Federal Government to shut such universities without further delay, otherwise the nation’s educational system would continue to witness a downward trend.
He said the National Universities Commission (NUC) should beam its searchlight on all universities and centres not operating according to approved standards and guidelines set by the commission.
Babalola described such institutions, as ‘major weapons’, fashioned against quality and functional education in Nigeria.
“The biggest menace facing quality education today, especially in Nigeria and across Africa, is the proliferation of mushroom, satellite institutions and campuses, including study centres that have long deviated from their original conceptualisation and intent.
“What we expect is for the National University Commission (NUC) to close down mushroom universities. There are many of such institutions that had been pronounced illegal by authorities, but which are still operating and even commenced operations without the permission of NUC,” Babalola said.
While recalling that the NUC once published the names of such institutions, Mr Babalola wondered why owners of such illegal universities are not arrested and the institutions closed down.
Earlier, Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State lauded the giant strides achieved by Babalola in the areas of medicine, law, invention and sciences.
