All Things Naija

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Global Post | Nigerian universities demand bribes for admission

By: Heather Murdock

ABUJA, Nigeria — Every year about 1 million Nigerian students pass college entrance exams, but the country’s universities can admit only 300,000.

The shortage of university places leaves most of Nigeria’s best students frustrated and uneducated, according to Kabir Mato, director of the Institute for Anti-Corruption Studies at the University of Abuja.

“There is a tremendous national crisis that is at hand,” Mato told GlobalPost. “At the end of the day, most of those boys and girls that have passed very well will not be accommodated and so they will grow hopeless.”

Mato said the inability of Nigeria’s 122 universities to take on most of their qualified applicants is a national security concern because it drives unemployed young people onto the streets and possibly into extremist groups like Boko Haram, which has killed 450 people so far this year with their protest bombings.

Many would-be students, however, say they are not interested in joining militias; they just want to get a good job. Mato said since many of Nigeria’s young people are unable to go to college, the economy also suffers from a lack of local innovation and educated employees.

Prospective university students say the fact that there are not enough university places is not nearly as frustrating as the corruption and nepotism of the application process.

FULL ARTICLE (Global Post)