Mr. Chris J. Maiyaki, the immediate past Deputy Executive Secretary, Administration, of the National Universities Commission, NUC, is an accomplished public administrator who recently bowed out of office after completing the mandatory 35 years of public service. In this interview with journalists, he reflects on his remarkable career, shares insights on the evolution of Nigeria’s university system, and lays emphasis on deliberate investment, good governance, and stronger alignment of university education with the nation’s development priorities.
How prepared are you? How safe?
Oh, prepared? Well, this is what 35 years of active, gainful, eventful employment has been. I started with the Plateau State Cabinet Office. I spent two-and-a-half years. And then I came in through service transfer, 32 years plus, since May 10th1993. But what that has meant is that I’ve fulfilled several secondary and primary leadership function positions to rise to the pinnacle.
In the succeeding years, with the organizational, operational, administrative, regulatory knowledge, and diplomacy skills that I have acquired over the years, I believe that, I can play a role in internationalization and in transnational education. And I will always have a say on any matter that has to do with education because I’ve seen it all. I’ve worked with several ministers, uncountable, I can’t even count them.
I’ve worked with six executive secretaries, including the present one. I’ve worked with, several vice-chancellors, professors, academics, development partners, all kinds of people. I’ve been prepared, with all modesty, to be honest, I found myself now being contacted by several, and I couldn’t believe it. Yesterday, I was at a meeting where people want to set up a university. They said wherever they went to, people said go to this man.
And then, even some foreign universities. I’ve seen some MoUs, people want to go into MoUs with me. I should allow that. So, I see that post-retirement, will even be busy for me. I think I have to even select what to use my time for. But let me tell you, I come from a tradition of modesty. The big things don’t worry me. So, my needs are very little. I’m not going to worry myself. My needs are very little.
So this is the kind of professional and career trajectory that God has endowed me with to prepare me for retirement. I’m very excited about the promising opportunity for me to do things differently. One professor, former president of the Nigerian Academy of Letters said to me listen, you’re just stepping aside to step up again. So I’m very excited.
I also believe that the young should grow. I can’t remain here forever. If people remained here, I wouldn’t have grown. There was an argument, I even chaired a committee. Some suggested us to do 65 years. I was not a member. I was a chairman, but I fought it. Because I would have done many years. I would have done like 15 years as a director.
Even without being a DES. Constance, our friend, would have done 18 years as a director. Where will the younger ones step into? I have been very blessed by a country that has exposed me, that has placed me on a world map that has given me visibility.
I have been blessed with colleagues from my driver to the highest echelon, minister or whatever, the highest echelon of leadership. I’ve participated in some of the best knowledge festivals in the world. Believe me, I’ve sat with ministers of education of other countries.
I’ve been on panels with them. I’ve been given the opportunity to prove my brand and my mettle as a Nigerian. And this, with all modesty, has prepared me, to be honest.
You have seen it all in the university system, having spent 35 years of service; what do you think can be done for Nigeria to have a better university system?
We have to dream, to aspire, to advocate, to negotiate. A better university system presupposes that we’ll place a premium on the pivotal role of universities. Universities bring development. Universities you know, create a generation of highly skilled, highly educated people.
There’s hardly any country that can outgrow the level of investment it makes in its educational system. When the UK was exiting Europe, you remember the Brexit? They were getting out of the common market. Theresa May faced a lot of steep opposition. Resistance from the British. They were ideologically divided. They still are. They regret leaving the European Union.
But it was at that defining moment that she addressed the nation and said, even if they were going to lose everything as a country, they would fall back on their university system to reinvent the United Kingdom. So universities have a role to play.
What do we need to do? We need to be very deliberate, very intentional about investing in education. We cannot treat education with kids’ gloves, with levity, you know, as an afterthought. We cannot afford to. I was privileged to visit the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, a postgraduate university, which has over 2,000 laboratories for only 1,500 students. They endowed $10 billion.
The late king of Saudi Arabia endowed $10 billion. That university was founded 10 years ago. And they invested the $10 billion, you know, in trust, in investments overseas, and they’re living on the dividends and the interest accruing from that investment.
That’s how serious they take universities. Okay? Universities are unique animals because they play unique roles in the life of a country, in the life of a nation, in the life of a family, in the life of an individual, and must be so treated with the seriousness that it deserves. So we need to invest in infrastructure.
If you go around universities now, you will see that the infrastructural deficit is very glaring. And even for the universities that have been created, whether they’re public or private, they’re very capital intensive. We must be deliberate.
As a deliberate effort, we must make sure that they’re well-equipped. Laboratories, Library holdings must be current in terms of quantum and quantity. You know? ICT penetration.
There is no hiding place now as to the role of technology in delivering education. We must be part of this global trend, global storm that has taken the world. We can’t afford to be analogue. We need to change and modernize the art of teaching- pedagogy. We need to infuse modern technology in the art of teaching. We need to improve the executive capacity of our staff, both teaching and non-teaching alike.
We need to constantly reform and update curriculum to bring it to speed with global best practices. To make sure that curriculum or curricula aligns with the demands of the workplace, 21st century workplace demands. We need to incentivize our teaching and non-teaching staff.
We need to give them a reason to continue to apply themselves fully to the vocation that they chose that they settled for when they graduated from university. We need to strengthen our governance system. There’s a joke that eroded ethics.
Poor governance, management and organizational systems are the bane of our university system. We need to reject that. We need to reinvent and reject and reorganize and reposition our governance ecosystem. So governance is very key, collaboration, because the university is an international character. We cannot, you know, operate in our silos, in our cocoons. We must expose our universities to some of the best practices so that we can glean, you know, those things that we daily need to improve our system.
We need to be strengthened as a regulatory agency that has been saddled with a vital responsibility to coordinate and regulate university education in the country. Professional bodies. Look at how they’re springing up.
Sir, congratulations once again; you are leaving at a time, when there is a serious situation in the education sector, I’m referring to the current strike by ASUU. Since 1999 till date, ASUU has gone on strike for 18 times, lasting over 1,500 days. Based on your experience in the sector, how best do you think this issue can be addressed?
Yes. I think the most compelling reason for us to stabilize the system is the mere fact that we all have a stake in the system.
When stakeholders begin on a note of “we have a stake in the system,” then they will do whatever it takes to stabilize that system. So, on the government side, we must remind ourselves that we also have stakes in the system, philosophically speaking. Because if you don’t have a stake in something, you won’t bother about it.
Do we have stakes in the system? Yes, we do have stakes in the system. The ASUU also, they have stakes in the system. Yes, they’re the ones who teach, they research, and they do the teaching.
The system is hinged on their manpower, the teaching and learning services that they provide. But I think as the system evolved, the livelihoods of university staff began to be eroded by a combination of economic downturn and also revenue accruing to government. So government, as much as it would have loved to, is not able to meet up with the demand of ASU at the level that they want.
So what the situation requires is a balance. There has to be a balance. Both sides have to be very realistic.
I strongly believe that the academic staff are deserving of a befitting salary structure so that we do not expose our academics to ridicule. There could be potential victims of recruitment by other systems, by other countries. As you can see, the exodus speaks volumes as to the dwindling fortunes of the Nigerian academics.
Nigerian academics that have demonstrated intellectual credibility, that have gained a lot of accolades, have been recognized, very outstanding wherever they go to. Why can’t they remain here and prove their brand and their metals, genders and their own names? We need to create the enabling environment, the ecosystem. I think this is the bone of contention.
The survival of the Nigerian university system is at the heart of the struggle of ASUU. I think we need to, as a system, build consensus around that. That understanding that the university system must survive.
And as I always argued when I went to the National Assembly, wherever I found myself, that the Nigerian university system does not just want to exist. It wants to survive. It wants to operate at full strength, to contribute its own quota, to be a catalyst of change.
And this is not an academic exercise. There are concomitants. There are facts and factors that must strengthen that system.
Legal, political, financial, funding, you know. And we have to treat it as such. Like other countries, as I alluded to in the United Kingdom, if you want them to research, to interrogate those problems that continue to engage mankind and provide solutions, we need to incentivize our academics.
Having said that, the academics also have to be very realistic. This system, this country now, resources are no longer available. Do you understand? As they were in those days.
And I even argue that even as an academic staff, if you were to swap positions, if you were to form a political party and take over the mantle of leadership and be in the villa, you will see that the country is undergoing a lot of financial stress. You can see the borrowing is ongoing, okay? Things are not the same.
Universities also should be able to undertake internally generated revenues. Tuition fees remain free in the universities officially.
Universities can only charge some charges, operational, to meet their operational costs. Because, you know, we did the unit cost analysis in NUC where we worked out how much it would cost to train a graduate. Somebody has to pay for it, even if government says it is free.
What was your most challenging time in the commission?
At the beginning and at the tail end, when I was acting. Both. At the beginning, I came from the state system, civil service. I was appointed secretary of the World Bank Project Implementation Unit. I had to double my efforts. It was very challenging to catch up. But that’s why when you have an incredible knack for bringing out the best out of any situation, you can survive with determination. And when you put your gaze on distinction, my middle name.
So I was able to combat those situations and it has never been the same. I was best worker at the executive secretary, I had accelerated promotion once. I met my colleagues. Because my boss said, no, you have to move.
But as ES, one of the things I challenged was the proliferation of professional workers. They were watering down the regulatory satire of ascendancy of the National Universities Commission, making it look like we’re working at cross purposes. That was the only time I sold out.
In a meeting, the teacher of the education council said they are also empowered to undertake accreditation of the education process. I said, can you shut down a program? He was looking at me. Can you establish it? He said no. Okay. Funding. Very frustrating.
There are things that universities can do. Ambitions, aspirations to move the system forward. The system is underfunded. I’m sorry to say. And even with TETFund, it’s still like a drop in the ocean. But TETFund has done its best. But we need to really prioritize improved funding for the universities. The unresolved issues with the university union was also an eyesore. And it’s still lingering and there’s no end.
I think if there’s any indictment of the reputation of the Nigerian university brand, there’s a frequency, the loss of quality manpower, man hours, to prolong weeks and months of strike action. Very frustrating. But yes, funding the proliferation of professional bodies.
Sir, a little bit about your remarkable achievements at the Commission?
I’m proud to say that even though the core curriculum in our academic standards was initiated by my boss, my benefactor, our friend, and our leader, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, it was when I was in the saddle that we activated. We launched the core curriculum in our academic standards. We brought it to fruition because it is one thing to produce a document like the constitution, it’s another thing to see it.
And you know, it faced a lot of misgivings. A lot of people were issuing disclaimers and what have you, and wherever I went to, and I said, we’re getting to the point of no return. Anybody who does not settle for the CCMAS does that at his own peril. And from now henceforth, it’s going to be our reference document. And in every forum where I give lectures, I say, who knows about the CCMAS? And the same people who are issuing disclaimers will raise their hands.
Okay, did you participate? The same people will say, yes, so where is this disquiet coming from? So, yes, we supervise with my management team, with my colleagues, we activated the immediate implementation of the core curriculum minimum academic standards in the 2004/2025 academic session. So, I find this as a hallmark.
We also launched the brand new guidelines on transnational education. Hitherto, we made it impossible for foreign investors to come into the Nigerian higher education space. But one of our signature innovations as a commission under my leadership was to bring, put together the experts and finalize and, you know, launch the transnational education guidelines in Edinburgh, in Scotland.
The then Nigerian Minister of Education, Prof Mamman Tahira, and his British counterpart, it was a very colourful, very proud moment for Nigeria. This is an achievement. And now under the guidelines, under the auspices of the guidelines, six models have been prescribed.
We can have branch campuses now, foreign investors are now at liberty to establish branch campuses. We have split size articulation, you can have joint degrees, you have teaching institutions, the models, we have acquisition, and we have ODL and whatever. This is all aimed at broadening and expanding access to university.
Because as you know, the recurring decimal, one of the challenges is access. That in spite of the massification of university education, we are still confronted, you know, with, or by the gap, huge gap between demand and supply. So the 309 universities put together can only, you know, can only accommodate between 500 and 700,000 candidates out of the 2 point something million that apply to go to university.
So yes, these are some of the things we’ve done. We’re able to produce the unit cost analysis for training graduates. We approve new programs, because as part of the massification of opportunities, new programs were approved.
We licensed new universities, both at the private and the state level. You came for some of the recognition exercises. To be honest, under my watch, we catapulted the internationalization portfolio of the Nigerian university brand. We gave it visibility. We made sure that, you know, we were known in every nook and corner of the world as a foster economy, you know. I think I also promoted inclusivity.
A lot of my bosses did, but I gave it, I qualified it, I made sure that the people had a sense of belonging, some of the nominations and appointments, you know. I cannot settle for anything less. I like to give people a sense of belonging. People who have never had this or that for the first time, I made sure, because I told them I belong to just the two tribes. The tribe of the good man and the tribe of the bad man.
Do you have any regrets? If you could turn back the hand of time, what would you have done differently?
You know, I always wanted to be an academic. I wanted to be an academic. I would have gone back to the century of learning. I would have done a doctorate degree. I would have become a professor. I wanted to, but let me tell you, I am not a professor of practice. But I, it is with a deep sense of fulfillment.
And as a believer, you cannot have regrets. It would be unethical to the tenet of your belief to have regrets. Because then you are telling God that, okay, thank you very much for bringing me those people, you know, you should have been kinder to me, you know. So, philosophically speaking, I cannot say that I have any regrets. I, all I have is a deep sense of fulfillment, you know, in what has turned out to be a very brilliant career. I am not, in all modesty, I have been privileged.
And I call it privilege. I always call it a privilege, because this is like favor, something that you do not merit. You get it, you, Nigeria has placed me, I have told you, everywhere. Professor Rasheed took me to Mauritius in 2017, and he was supposed to be the rapporteur among ministers from many countries, 77 countries, they were in clusters. And he said, no, Chris will be the rapporteur. He abdicated that responsibility.
I presented, I briefed the meeting in plenary, it was a UNESCO meeting, regional meeting. That was the beginning. From there, I was nominated to deliver, to address 196 countries in Ljubljana, in Slovenia. I went to Tunisia, UNESCO kept catapulting me. I cannot have regrets. I have met some of the top leaders, university leaders in the world. I have met leaders of thought, I have met university leaders. No regrets, to be honest.
