First, governments at all levels must ensure that heads of the institutions in question, to include vice-chancellor, rector, and provost for universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, respectively, are strictly appointed via merit instead of mere favouritism which is usually the case. Astute administrators, or individuals of note, ought to be appointed to serve in such capacities rather than engaging a mere benchwarmer.
Sometimes, the poor state of these schools is partly attributed to the kind of person piloting their affairs. In most cases you would observe that a vice-chancellor, for instance, would spend several years on seat, but end up not implementing any consequential project throughout his/her five-year tenure.

This aspect of misappropriation of funds is, for quite some time now, being harboured as a culture in most existing higher citadels of learning across the federation.

Similarly, the concerned quarters must ensure that only qualified individuals are employed as lecturers; engaging unqualified teachers in the institutions have succeeded in causing untold harm to the future of the teeming students, particularly the undergraduates.

The wages of the lecturers must also be taken as priority by the governments and other concerned bodies, and those in privately-owned institutions should equally be treated as such.

Universities, being research-oriented institutions, cannot thrive under the ongoing Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime of the present administration in Nigeria. The education sector – especially higher institutions – deserves unalloyed financial autonomy, thus they ought to be exempted from such mechanism.

Since the initiative is targeted to curb corruption, the government can set up a formidable and reliable agency that would continually monitor how the schools are faring. If anyone is found culpable in the process, he/she ought to be brought to book without much ado.

It’s very pathetic and an eyesore that our universities are yet to commercialize their patents in an era where the society is expected to mainly depend on higher institutions as regards research works, tech-driven innovations and development.

The fact is, adequate funding of higher education, which has been taken aback for decades now, is the only way the government can make the affected institutions compete globally. There are absolutely no two ways about it.

Though the ongoing Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) scheme is trying, a lot still needs to be done. Most times these funds are utilized on laboratory equipment that cannot be calibrated, or library materials such as books that are outdated, thereby making them serve as mere monuments or decorative materials as long as they last in the various benefiting institutions.

Taking into cognizance that funding shouldn’t be left for the government alone, the head of these institutions must be prepared to reach out to the relevant bodies in a bid for collaboration and endowment initiatives. This is why a well cerebral and smart individual is meant to be appointed to pilot the affairs of the citadels in question.

The Labour unions such as ASUU and NAAT, among others, on their part must endeavour to run an independent unionism at all times, rather than barely indulging in tokenism. The handwriting should invariably be clearly written on the wall for the concerned government regardless of the circumstance. Hence, they mustn’t spare the rot and spoil the child.

They ought to acknowledge that any foul play they engage in is to the detriment of their students’ future, and that of Nigeria at large. If you have a cause you are fighting for, concentrate on how to drive to the end instead of succumbing to baseless and unfounded threats in the long run.

This recessionary era is obviously the ripe time to get the funding of the Nigeria’s higher education right, because any procrastination would surely be at the expense of the anticipated economic turnaround.

In a big announcement on Monday, the New York Times said it has acquired Wordle, a simple word guessing game, for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures.

“As The Times looks to entertain more solvers with puzzles every day — especially during these anxious times — we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve acquired Wordle, the stimulating and wildly popular daily word game that has become a cultural phenomenon,” The Times said.

Wordle was created by a Reddit engineer, Josh Wardle, and launched in October as a free to play game. Wordle gives players just six guesses to determine a five-letter word that changes every day. It has soared in popularity in less than three months of its launch, attracting hundreds of thousands, then millions, of players.

Players of the game share their scores on social media along with screenshots of the game’s distinctive grid. Following The Times acquisition, the game will continue to be free to play for a while.

Wardle initially created the word game, which he named after his surname, for his partner, who he’d known was a fan of puzzle.

Wardle told the Guardian this month that he felt overwhelmed by the game’s viral success.

“It going viral doesn’t feel great, to be honest. I feel a sense of responsibility for the players. I feel I really owe it to them to keep things running and make sure everything’s working correctly,” he said.

On Nov. 1, the game had 90 players. Nearly two months later, the figure ballooned to 300,000, according to the release from The New York Times.

“The game has gotten bigger than I ever imagined,” Wardle wrote in a statement on Twitter. “I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been a little overwhelming. After all, I am just one person, and it is important to me that, as Wordle grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone.”

Since the launch of The Crossword in 1942, The New York Times has seen its game business rise exponentially. In 2014, the newspaper platform introduced the mini crossword, followed by Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles and Vertex. Together, its games have reached one million subscriptions, and were played in 2021.

The acquisition of Wordle will augment The Times’ growing games enterprise. Wordle has been praised for its simplicity. Times’ crossword editor, Will Shortz, described Wordle as “a great puzzle”, saying that “it doesn’t take long to play, which makes it perfect for our age when people have short attention spans.”

Jonathan Knight, general manager for The New York Times Games, said the game has done what so few games have done: It has captured our collective imagination, and brought us all a little closer together.

“As part of our portfolio of games, Wordle will have an exciting future with the help of a team of talented engineers, designers, editors and more, furthering the user experience,” he added.

Wardle said he’s proud that the game is ending up with New York Times, which has been part of its story from the beginning.

“If you’ve followed along with the story of Wordle, you’ll know that New York Times Games play a big part in its origins, and so this step feels very natural to me. I’ve long admired The Times’s approach to the quality of their games and the respect with which they treat their players. Their values are aligned with mine on these matters and I’m thrilled that they will be stewards of the game moving forward,” he said.