Utomi: I never wanted to attend university

Pat Utomi, founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership and a professor at the Lagos Business School, has revealed that he had no intentions of attending a university, describing Nigeria’s obsession with tertiary institutions as misplaced.

Speaking at the Africa American Institute (AAI’s) state of education in Africa conference, held in Lagos, Utomi said Nigeria has an obsession with tertiary education.

“The big challenge with Education today in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, is an obsession with tertiary education,” he said.

“There are several reasons why there is this obsession with tertiary education; it is caused partly from the fact that many people, knowledgeable people who challenged an order in which the military came to dominate society were the academics in the society.

“The real struggle of the military era was not between politicians and soldiers; it was between academics and the military. For the military, they needed to dominate that class.”

He added that most of Nigeria’s brightest minds now live abroad, saying when he came back after graduate school in 1982, he returned to Nigeria and he and his friends who just finished their doctor of philosophy programme came back to the country, only for many of them to “leave town”.

“Only three of us didn’t leave Nigeria – Olisa Agbakoba, Femi Aribisala, and I. Everybody else now lives in Newyork, Washington, London, the so called brain drain.

“The most important level of education is primary education, but parents must realise that they are the first teachers of the children.

“I went to the University of Nigeria by accident, I didn’t want to go to the university at all; I wanted to be an airline pilot. I was tricked by my father into spending a year or two in the university to make friends. That was the whole idea.

“Unfortunately for me, I ran into something called a library, which changed the rest of my life. The point of that failure led me to say if I had to do it all over again, I would study engineering, then go on to get a masters’ in business.”

Stakeholders from across Africa were also at the event, discussing the solutions to Africa’s educational issues.

Among these stakeholders were Doyayi Aminu, study group coordinator, Institute for Security Studies, Abuja; Ndidi Nwuneli, founder, Leap Africa; Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, co-founder, Andela; Amini Kajunju, president, The Africa-America Institute.

Innovative academic presentations were made in a string of Pitchfest presentations, and the top prize of $1,500 was won by Pass.ng, a mobile-based testing application for Nigerian students.