NO TERTIARY INSTITUTION SHOULD BE CLOSED FOR ELECTIONS
In the recently released independent national electoral commission’s (INEC) voters registration data, out of 93,469,008 eligible voters in its voters register after the final cleanup that includes the removal of double registration and underage voters, voters between the ages of 18 and 34 make up 37,060,399 or 39.65 percent of the electorate, while voters between the ages of 35 and 49 make up 33,413,591 or 35.75 percent, the commission also revealed that students make up the largest category at 26,027,481 or 27.8 percent of all registered voters, in terms of occupational distribution, this has emboldened the youths into thinking they can finally influence the outcome of the election, thereby prompting the CSOs and youth organizations to put pressure on the members of the house of representatives into asking the federal government to shut down tertiary education institutions to allow students participate in the general elections.
Even though I understand and also resonate with their grouse, I do not agree that the universities should be shut down for the coming elections, based on two reasons which are economic and social, talking about the economic reasons, a closure of the universities will affect the expenditure, production sectors attached to the tertiary institutions economy, tertiary institutions employ both lecturers and administrative staff, which we call direct employment, then there is indirect employment , jobs that are not directly related to the core functions of the institution, like restaurants, supermarkets, gadget sellers, stationery sellers and all other surrounding markets situated in the host communities of these institutions, closure of the schools will lead to a decrease in the demand of goods and services for these goods and services providers , thereby also affecting production, there will be a reduction in production of goods by producers , especially goods being consumed more by students, because the students are the target market of most SMEs
The banking sector in over 500 tertiary institutions in the country will be affected, demand and supply due to the closure of these institutions will also reduce banking activities, in the university of Lagos alone, there are 6 commercial banks, let’s assume there are 4 banks on the average in every tertiary institution across the country, multiply that by 500, that’s about 2000 banking and financial institution’s branches in these schools that will be facing low patronage due to the closure of tertiary institutions nationwide, low demand of their services will cause a reduction in profits, operations will go on, and they will still bear the full weight of the running cost which is made up of the fixed cost and variable cost, which will harm the turnover rate of these banks.
The social effects are also there, loss of interest in education by the general public, there is a common phrase now rampant on social media called “school na scam ”, it’s one of the pointers that show how much our youths have lost interest in education, because of the incessant stops in educational activities, prolonged school years that exceed the specified periods, all these lead to the production of half-baked graduates, which leads to low productivity on the economy, it will also cost companies and organizations a lot of money in training costs, I can go on and on about these disadvantages on the economy, but they are things most of us know already.
In conclusion, I do not agree that schools should be shut down, I love democracy and I want everyone to participate in the elections, especially after the last 8 months’ strike that has just been called off, and for a country currently facing rising inflation rates, with insecurity on the rise, even presently people are daily queuing for fuel, thereby making us lose important man hours that would have helped our productivity as a country, this is not the right time to shut down any institution even for a second.
