Govt should outsource functions of varsities’ non-teaching staff — Daramola, ex-FUTA VC

WOULD you say you fully achieved what you planned for FUTA in your five-year tenure as vice chancellor?

I came to that seat with a vision. I became VC after spending 26 years within the system and I knew where the shoe pinches and I went for it. That is one major reason we achieved a lot. However, the reason we couldn’t achieve so much is human problems, and that is not restricted to FUTA. There were certain elements in Abuja who for selfish reasons tried to sabotage and sit on our papers thereby delaying our approval. (I’m) talking about ministry, the National Universities Commission — certain individuals who for personal reasons sabotaged our efforts. Let me give you a good example. We didn’t have a single special intervention project from TETFund for the entire tenure while some other universities had three to five, because I was not ready to play ball. I was contended with them giving us our dues, the ones we are statutorily entitled to. Special intervention is the one that comes along with conditions. (There were) some that involved approvals here and there for sending students abroad, and somebody would just decide to sit on it simply because we did not do ‘what we were expected to’.

What is your experience with the critical stakeholders, especially the unions and the students?

Within two months of my assumption, the union went on the rampage. The acting VC before me had paid them something but the moment I came on board, they thought I was going to be easy to deal with and they started agitating, and I did not budge. We dealt with them and those are some of the elements that were waiting at the other ends. We had sacked some of them and they were at home for like six months. One of the conditions when we took them back was that they would never ask for that six months; and no sooner than they resumed, they started asking for it. Some say I am heady.

So, having been in that position, what would you suggest is the best way to related to the unions?

The non-teaching unions are a big problem for the university; they are clogs in the wheel of progress. What government should do is to outsource some of their functions – drivers, cleaners, porters. The more the government can outsource them, the better. Secondly, the government should make sure they are not federated. If they are not federated, it would be left for each council to deal with each union.

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As someone who has served as VC and chairman Committee of Vice Chancellors, apart from the fact that the non-teaching staff are a big problem, they contribute the least and they want the most. They are the ones that will go and vandalise the powerhouse because they want people to know they are on strike. They will lock the gate and be attacking academic staff that are going on their duty, and even students. They operate just the way the NURTW (National Union of Road Transport Workers) people operate.

What is your stake on the funding of the university system?

Another problem confronting the system is the issue of inadequate funding. The universities are underfunded. The government and stakeholders need to look at ways to fund the university. I sympathise with the government because it has a lot of things competing for funds. Unfortunately for Nigerian universities, we are not well ranked to attract international students. If you are well ranked, you will attract international students who will be paying in dollars; and if they are many, that will constitute good income.

Are you saying students should pay fees despite the position of many people that education should be free?

Honestly, I am a realist. Education is not cheap, and the government cannot fund education alone. In Nigeria, we love to hide behind one finger, and that is the anger of the private universities. There are students paying N2.5million while some are paying N40,000 to study the same course in different universities. Are the ones paying not Nigerians? Where is the equity? Because public universities have more faculty members, it is the ones paying low that are being taught better because of government facilities.

What about the issue of autonomy in the university system?

Autonomy is good but basically, there is still a problem. There is another solution in the area of students’ fee. We are in a country where some are paying N1.5m in a school like Afe Babalola University to study Law, and some are paying N35,000 in public universities like Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and the University of Ibadan (UI). There is a way the government can look at it again and make the university viable by providing loans and support for indigent students to be able to pay. We once toyed with the idea that government can make university students pay fees but pegged it to say not more than N200,000 and then give some subvention. The problem is that the children of the poor may not have it but then, the government can provide another ground where they can take funds as loan or grant to support their education.

How do you think we can curtail corruption in the system?

One of the ways we can stop corruption in the university is what the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offices Commission and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission are already doing. They are working on that. I was with the executive secretary of NUC and he told me that they are working together to ensure that they curtail the excesses of VCs who want to pilfer. There is more noise than the real thing. In Abeokuta, they talked of corruption, went to EFCC and at the end of the day, it was a no-case submission and it was dismissed. In FUTA, it so happened. Any VC that does not dance to the tune of the unions is blackmailed with corruption. That is why there should be sanctions for them. In FUTA’s case, they knew me well; they worked with me and knew that I am transparent in all my transactions and dealings and yet they went on so that it would be on record that EFCC had made arrest. Media trial was all they wanted to achieve, and that is why people should be made to pay because you just can’t get to spoil people’s name and get away with it.

Two Ondo State universities were shut recently over students’ protest over school fees. What you do think is the way out?

I can understand their plight in OSUSTECH (Ondo State University of Science and Technology). They are paying like N300,000 while AAUA (Adekunle Ajasin University, Akkungba) is charging like N100,000 – under the same proprietor, which is still a far cry. So, the Nigerian system is dysfunctional and our education has become dysfunctional. No equity anywhere; and when there is injustice, there will be crisis. Because the fellow attending private university and paying N2 million is as Nigerian as the person paying N50,000. That is why the pressure is on public universities. It is only those who can’t get into public universities that go into private universities.