Education in Nigeria has long been a spectator sport: students sit, lecturers talk, theories are memorised, and four years later, a graduate emerges holding a certificate in one hand and begging for a job with the other. This is not education. This is intellectual theatre. And the curtain must fall.
My vision is radical, practical, and urgent: The University Production Model.
Imagine a university where there are no traditional faculties or departments. Instead, there are commercial entities operating under the university’s umbrella. A University Film Studio that produces Nollywood blockbusters. A University Farm that feeds the surrounding community and exports produce. A University Construction Firm building roads and houses. A Legal Clinic offering real legal services to the public. A Pharmacy dispensing medication. A Medical Centre treating patients. A University Tech Hub developing software for local businesses.
Theory is not left out. Students will receive rigorous training in the theoretical and intellectual foundations of their chosen fields. At the end, they are endowed with both deep understanding and the practical competence society urgently needs.
These are not simulations. These are real companies, registered, operational, and profit-driven. They employ staff, bid for contracts, and generate revenue. Within this ecosystem, students are admitted not to sit in lecture halls, but to learn practical skills on the job. Every student is an apprentice, a junior staff member, a contributor. And here is the game-changer: they get paid while they learn.
No more “industrial training” that amounts to office errands. No more graduating without knowing how to weld, code, diagnose a patient, draft a contract, or pour concrete. The Production University produces graduates who are not job seekers, but job creators. They leave with years of real experience, a portfolio of work, and money in their pockets.
Now, scale this vision. My target is ambitious but achievable: Every local government in Nigeria must have three such universities. That is over 2,000 production universities nationwide. Each one becomes an asset of production, an economic engine that generates wealth, employs locals, and solves community problems. The local government becomes the laboratory. The community becomes the client. The university becomes the factory of human capital and commercial value.
Critics will ask: “What about academic rigor?” I answer: Rigor is not memorising outdated theories. Rigor is solving a structural problem with engineering precision, winning a court case with sound argument, or delivering a baby under pressure. The Production University marries theory to practice where students learn the “why” in the evening and execute the “how” in the daytime.
This model does not beg the government for subventions. It pays taxes. It does not produce unemployed graduates. It produces partners, entrepreneurs, and technicians. It transforms the university from a cost centre into a profit centre, from a place of waiting to a place of making.
We have spent decades exporting our brightest minds because our institutions failed them. The Production University brings them back. It says to every young Nigerian: Come, learn, earn, and build.
This is not just educational reform. This is economic liberation. The State, the University, and Private Investors can finally align, not in theory, but in daily commercial reality.
Let us stop teaching students how to pass exams. Let us teach them how to build a nation.
Ogbevire Christian Ashaiku (AKA Daddy Kris)
Human Rights Activist
PhD Law Research Fellow
Middlesex University London
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