Partner with govt on funding blueprint for varsities, Tinubu tasks unions

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appealed to university unions, especially the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to recognise that all sectors in the country need more financing and that the government is working assiduously to perform its obligation with the resources available to it.

He said that he fully understood the situation of the university system in the country and the efforts taken by unions to draw the attention of the government and public to the need for more funding of the system.

He then tasked the unions to partner with the government to arrive at a funding blueprint for the university system in the country that will take cognisance of local peculiarities and modern realities based on global best practices.

President Tinubu made this submission on Monday while speaking at the 2024 convocation and 76th Founder’s Day ceremonies of the University of Ibadan on the admission of higher degrees, PhD, and conferment of honourary degrees, held at the International Conference of the university.

According to him, any university that does not make worthwhile contributions to the positive transformation of its country and the global community has failed to live up to the reason for its existence.

Tinubu, represented by the honorable Minister of State of Education, Dr. Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmed, however, challenged Nigerian universities generally to reassess themselves in the light of national and global expectations.

While noting that “It is an impossibility to channel all the available funds in the country to the education sector, he said tertiary institutions have remained the largest beneficiaries of allocations to the education sector, through increased funding of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

He lauded the management of the university for its tireless efforts in nurturing and inspiring the graduates of the institution to enrich the nation’s academic community while he congratulated the graduating students, charging them to be bold in their pursuit of excellence and steadfast in their commitment to making a difference.

Meanwhile, the chancellor of the university, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, in his remarks, appealed to the government to do more in terms of the provision of adequate and proper funding to tertiary institutions.

“We are optimistic that prioritising education will raise the standard of the output of our institution and thereby address some of the ills bedeviling our society,” he noted.

In his address, the vice-chancellor of the institution, Professor Kayode Adebowale, disclosed that at this year’s convocation, two candidates were awarded Doctor of Medicine and 483 from the various disciplines with Doctor of Philosophy degrees, noting that the Faculty of Education topped the list with 96 and Faculty of Science with 85 doctoral graduands.

While he prided the university on being the best and one with the largest number of postgraduate candidates in West Africa, he said, in terms of ranking, “the University of Ibadan has moved up to the seventh position in Africa.

“It has climbed up to the 401-500 category in the Times Higher Education 2024 ranking in the area of Clinical and Health,” he added.

At the event four other eminent personalities in the nation were awarded honourary degrees of the university for their outstanding contributions to higher education in Nigeria, namely, Emeritus Professor Olufemi Bamiro as Doctor of Science (DSc); Chief Mojisola Olusola Ladipo, Doctor of Letters(D.Litt) and Mr Victor Etuokwu(DSc); Alhaji Muhammadu Indimi(D.Litt).

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