Abstract
The conclusion emphasises that Nigerian universities were part of a global age of technocratic development that emerged in the 1930s and broke up in the 1960s and 1970s. Development was a powerful idea, but in practice it relied on contingent alliances between a range of actors. Like other institutions introduced during decolonisation, universities at once represented the authority of western norms, and put Nigerians in a better position to challenge them. The conclusion comments on the history of Nigerian universities since the 1960s, including the problems they encountered as the Nigerian state contracted and their prospects for the future.
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Notes
- 1.
Until a new generation of British universities was designed towards the end of the decade: Muthesius, Postwar University, 94–170.
- 2.
For an overview of the creation of new states see Falola and Heaton, History of Nigeria, 192–3.
- 3.
Fela Kuti, ‘Mister Follow Follow’, from ‘Zombie’, Coconut Records (1976). Fela Kuti was the son of Israel Ransome-Kuti, of the Elliot Commission, and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the noted pioneer of women’s rights and reputedly the first Nigerian woman to drive a car.
- 4.
For example see Ekbladah, Great American Mission, 227–51.
- 5.
Stolper, Inside Independent Nigeria, 302.
- 6.
Ike, University Development, 225; Hanson, Education, Nsukka, 22–3; Nwauwa, Imperialism, Academe, 215–16.
- 7.
AID Lagos to AID Washington, 30 October 1969, 6, NACP RG 286 P825 box 40, ‘EDU-6 higher education Nigeria CY 1969’ folder.
- 8.
Pratt, Swanson and Bigelow, ‘An evaluation of the general development grant’, 27, RAC FF reports 2325 box 97. Coleman too came to feel that Dike had enlisted foundation support to defend Ibadan’s primacy against the new generation of Nigerian universities: Coleman, University Development, 99–100.
- 9.
Parmar, American Century, 3.
- 10.
For example see Knapp to Federal Minister of Education, 23 May 1990, CURBML CCNY series IIIA box 746 folder 4.
- 11.
Megan Grace (school teacher and wife of Dr. John Grace, history lecturer at the University of Jos), interview with the author, October 2014.
- 12.
Parliamentary Debates, Commons, Vol. 971 (1979), col. 372–3. Also see Parliamentary Debates, Lords, Vol. 427 (1982), col. 1369–70.
- 13.
Ikime, ‘Problems of student welfare’, 258.
- 14.
Ike, University Development, 175.
- 15.
Coleman, University Development, 93.
- 16.
Ajayi, Goma and Johnson, African Experience, 139–41.
- 17.
S.J. Okudu, ‘Diary of an alumnus registrar’, in Tamuno (ed.), Ibadan Voices, 195.
- 18.
Achebe, British-Protected Child, 145, 148.
- 19.
Although the cults had roots in the 1970s, and earlier: Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime (London, 2016), 112–13, 142–3; Ogunsanya, ‘Impact of campus secret cult organisations’, 77.
- 20.
For example, see IBRD, World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security and Development (Washington, DC, 2011), 263, 283–4, 290.
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Livsey, T. (2017). Conclusion. In: Nigeria’s University Age. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56505-1_8
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