THERE ARE STILL HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ADMISSIONS INTO TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS THAT WILL NOT BE COUNTED

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Children who will be asking for tertiary education tomorrow. Their journey just started. Credit: Ben Fash/Commons.wikimedia.org

Last month, as UTME was being written by more than one million Nigerian youths, a news article reported that the tertiary institutions in the country can only admit about five hundred thousand (500,000) of the more than one million five hundred thousand (1,500,000) that were registered for the exams. These does not mean that the remaining one million are still left without any hope of getting a tertiary education.

Where demand overshoots supply, provided the price is right, the educational system will always find a way to make it up.

Clearly, our youths make every sacrifice to be admitted into our Universities. Irrespective of family background or economic status, millions of youths seek tertiary education at any cost. That is why it is with missed feelings one reads the news that millions of youths who will not make it into tertiary institutions through the Unified Tertiary Institutions and Polytechnics Matriculation Examination (UTME) will be denied such a privilege.

Because the demand is so high, tertiary institutions have devised several ways of accepting the teeming number of students who lurk at their gates. Direct entry programs, distance learning and outreach programs are quite some brilliant innovative ways. Although the cost of acquiring a university education might increase, the concomitant effect of admitting a large number of students along with the cost effective use of technology like the Nigerian Open University of Nigeria, part-time tertiary education and satellite campuses have an opposite effect of mopping up the expected increase in the cost of acquiring such an education.

The proliferation of private universities, some obscure at best, some offering quality education, but all responding to the demands of the educational marketplace for increased access to university education, even something remotely resembling one, reinforce the mopping up operation for those students who the primary UTME examination will not admit.

Motivated students and well-adjusted adults also take advantage of the numerous opportunities to learn while working, without ever seeing the four walls of a university. On my Facebook wall is a well- loved satellite channel that teaches interesting courses that could be comparable to GCE A-levels. MIT opencourseware although rigorous at best, is a very good alternative when UTME seems farfetched.

The effect of all these alternatives is to increase the number of students who are able to have the privilege of a quality university education while keeping the costs equal or nearly so, to what is obtained at our Federal Universities and Polytechnics.

So even if our universities, polytechnics and monotechnics can only admit about five hundred thousand (500,000) of the more than one million five hundred thousand students who sat for UTME this year, that does not mean about a million youths will be sitting in front of their television screens awaiting 2013. The education market knows how to absorb and make them part of the fold of educated learned members of the society, provided they are well motivated.

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COULD WINNERS CHAPEL BE USING MONEY TO DRAG MORE MEMBERS TO HIS CHURCH THROUGH ITS HEBRON SACHET WATER? JUDGE FOR YOURSELF.

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power can even be more powerful than the pull of electromagnetic waves that drive electricity.” Credit: Tony Boon/tonyboon.co.uk

I have no qualms against religious bodies producing commercially, but when the product is labeled as “holy”, like Hebron sachet water produced by the founder of Winners Chapel, David Oyedepo, and the price is fifty percent (50%) cheaper than the usual, then this is a predator in the market!

Hebron sachet water was born to be a monopolist.

Hebron sachet water could eventually be a natural monopoly in the market for sachet waters at Ota and like everybody would eventually learn, you better beware of entering its territory.

For one, the residents of Ota say that the water is “holy.” On the other hand, Oyedepo has decided to sell it at fifty percent of the actual price in the market. The demand for his product is so high that it even interferes with church services.

If you ask me, I’ll tell you that if Oyedepo is allowed to continue this way, he is sooner than latter going to drive so many of his competitors out of the market. When he gains monopoly power, (oh, how sweet power is!), we could see a trend where resellers of the sachet water would come from only amongst people who attend his church. By selling it at N120, the market price, they get to make a profit of N60 on each bag of sachet water which profit no other sachet water can provide. So, only his devotees will eventually control the market.

Hebron sachet water could see a line of Hebron bottle water, Hebron spring water and so on and so forth in the near future. That is the benefit monopoly confers.

But what if his monopoly power is only a tool to further increase his religious powers?

Business must be good for his company. And also for his members who have given him a cost advantage over his rivals. Altruism and the volunteering spirit would make sure the cost of input for his business is lower than the average. This indeed is a good thing, especially if they get to share from the profits.

The downside is that this could be a strategy, well known in poverty ridden Africa, of enriching his church members as a bait used to attract other people who are not members of his church. This would be a dangerous thing. But what if everyone does it and would surely want to do it?

Power corrupts and so does religion.

After gaining monopoly power and driving his competitors out of the market, what if Oyedepo decides to increase the price of Hebron sachet water to reflect the true market price? Because he has all of Ota at his fingertips when it comes to sachet water, he could see his revenue and profits double, triple and quadruple overnight. He has the power to decide who will be in the business or not, especially when he must have started with the faithful of his church. Religion and power are dangerous things, you must agree with me, and when both resides in the palms of a single mortal, then one only wonders when corruption will start creeping in.

Notwithstanding, everyone likes a cheap product and he has it going for him.

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