The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has decried the continued infrastructural decay, poor funding, and proliferation of universities in Nigeria.
The Zonal Coordinator of Benin Zone of ASUU, Prof. Monday Igbafen, expressed the union’s position at a press conference organised over the unresolved issues between ASUU and the government at Delta State University, Abraka, on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Igbafen said the zone comprises University of Benin; Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma; Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko; and Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa in Ondo State.
According to him, others are Delta State University, Abraka; Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun; and University of Delta, Agbor.
He said the briefing was necessary to alert critical stakeholders and the general public to another avoidable impending paralysis in Nigeria’s public universities due to actions and inactions of the government.
The ASUU official noted that the proliferation of universities was one of the issues that precipitated the 2022 prolonged industrial action by the union.
Igbafen said in 2020, the ASUU-FGN Memorandum of Action stressed the need to review the Nigeria University Commission (NUC) Act to empower it to arrest the reckless proliferation of universities by federal and state governments without adequate budgetary provision to fund them.
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According to him, the reckless establishment of universities by politicians, most of which are seen as constituency projects, has put much pressure on the intervention funds provided by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
He said some state universities were established without serious consideration for their adequate funding.
Igbafen urged the governments to halt the proliferation of universities and fund the existing ones to enable them to compete with Ivory Towers in other parts of the world.
According to Igbafen, the debilitating and suffocating impact of neo-liberal policies of government at both the federal and state levels has undermined public good and other good things of life in the country.
The ASUU zonal coordinator said: “These include the welfare of academics. As a result, not only is education in the doldrums, academics in Nigeria have become an endangered species in Nigeria’s existential space.
“Recall that our union has been confronting the Federal Government on a number of issues which include stalled renegotiation of 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, and the absence of governing councils in federal and state universities.
“Also, the Earned Academic Allowance, the withheld salaries and promotion arrears and third party deductions, illegal recruitment, proliferation of public universities, abuse of the universities’ rules and processes and TSA/ News IPPIs.”
Igbafen noted that the issues highlighted had been on for a decade, adding that the failure of the government to address the myriad challenges and worsening living and working conditions in Nigeria public universities is a direct invitation to crisis.
“The crisis is eminent if this and other unresolved Sundry issues are not urgently and reasonably addressed by the government,” he added.
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