This paper comments on the nature and components of the use of English programme in Nigerian tertiary institutions and suggests a course content that will enhance the effectiveness of the programme. The paper opines that the use of English is based on an awareness of the English language deficiency of Nigerian students and the need for them to have communicative competence in the language to perform academic tasks. It then suggests that higher institutions should design this programme to promote the teaching of compulsory remedial and developmental English courses, which would complement the amount of general English taught earlier in the primary and secondary schools.