The Academic Staff Union of Universities has again called on the federal and state governments to halt the proliferation of universities and take bold steps to adequately fund the existing ones to enable them to compete with ivory towers in other parts of the world.
Benin zonal president of the union, Professor Monday Igbafe, made the call at a press conference held in Abraka, Delta State, on Wednesday to look into the various pending issues between the union and federal government.
The issues include the stalled renegotiation of the 2009 federal government/ASUU agreement, the absence of governing councils in all federal and university institutions, the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), withheld salaries, promotion arrears, third-party deductions, and illegal recruitments, among others.
The zonal president was flanked by officials of the union from the University of Benin, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, Delta State University, Abraka, the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, and the University of Delta, Agbor.
According to Igbafe, the reckless establishment of universities by politicians, most of which are seen
as constituency projects, have put much pressure on the intervention funds provided by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
“The proliferation of universities was one of the issues that precipitated the 2022 prolonged strike action by the Union.
“In 2020, the ASUU-FGN Memorandum of Action (MoA) stressed the need to review the NUC Act to empower it to arrest the reckless proliferation of universities by federal and state governments without adequate budgetary provision to fund them.
“A joint committee of ASUU and NUC submitted a draft bill to the National Assembly on this matter. To date, nothing has been heard about the bill.
“While the idea of building and establishing more universities to meet the growing demand for university education by Nigerians is not completely out of place, the Union is disturbed by the motive and rationality behind the establishment of more than one university, for example, by some State governments when it is obviously clear that they lack the financial capacity or capital to meet the demands of one university, not to mention two or more.
“This ugly phenomenon is fast spreading among many states whose governors have engaged in the establishment of more new universities without serious consideration for their adequate funding.
“The states that have been caught in this myopic idea include Edo, Ondo, Kano and Osun, where state-owned
universities are in shambles.
On the underfunding of Nigerian universities, Professor Igbafe noted with sadness that the federal government had yet to release any funds to the universities based on the understanding between the union and government arising from the 2023 budget.
This, he said, had frustrated all efforts to address infrastructural decay in the universities and to meet the legitimate earnings of staff.
“Recall that it was with the 2022 struggle that the Federal Government claimed to have budgeted the sum of N170 billion in the 2023 budget.
“The Union’s understanding was that the NI20 billion was meant to address part of the outstanding Needs Assessment Intervention Fund, while the balance would go into paying one of the agreed tranches of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA).
“It is equally sad that the mainstreaming of EAA, which was supposed to commence in 2022, has remained a mirage at both federal and state universities.
“This is a time bomb for industrial crisis. We seriously frown at the government’s deliberate, uncooperative attitude to keep faith with our MoU of 2013, which provided for N1.3 trillion over a period of six years for the restoration of universities to a level at which they could attract foreign students and become renowned for cutting-edge and transformative research.
“Our union has consistently condemned state governments that have been infested with neoliberal policies and the World Bank’s recommendation to abandon the funding of their universities.
“Edo State Government is a classical example of a government in the country whose underfunding posture is worrisome and anti-tertiary education.
“While Ekiti and Delta States have continued to sustain increased funding to their state universities, there is a complete withdrawal of funding to Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma.
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