ABSTRACT
The national Department of Agriculture had intended to bring Nigerians into the lower levels of the agricultural service, and one of its first acts when established in 1921 was to set up a training school for agricultural officers at Moor Plantation, near Ibadan in what were the Western provinces. Higher education in the agricultural sciences was particularly neglected prior to independence. This posed a huge barrier to improving the technology complex. In Nigeria, the process of introducing American ideas about higher education was no smoother than it was in India. The Ashby report’s proposal not to add a fifth, regional university in the West immediately ran afoul of Nigerian sectional and ethnic politics. Westerners argued that although Ibadan was located within their borders, its mandate was national in scope and not directed to their problems. The 1970–1974 development plan, acknowledged that “urgent” reforms were needed to create “viable working relationship” among federal research centers, state ministries of agriculture, and universities.
