The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Sunday, January 28, 2024 accused the Federal Government of establishing “mushroom” tertiary institutions that have become nothing but crisis centres with no funding options and hope of management.
ASUU while urging the government to as a matter of national concern, jettison the politicisation of universities in the country, noted that the proliferation of such mushroom universities by the government at all levels remains a major cause for concern for stakeholders.
It also said that while the same Federal Government that is shying away from funding tertiary institutions, is planning to establish no fewer than 32 federal universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education across the country.
These were contained in a statement by the National President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who specifically said that proper funding and running of the public universities – State and Federal – remains at the heart of ASUU’s struggle for a university system which can drive national development and compete internationally.
In the words of ASUU; “This informs our concern, among others, with the issue of the unbridled proliferation of state universities, which State Governors were fastly turning to mere constituency projects.
“We have several instances of states that are unable to fund their existing universities going ahead to establish more. In the process, such state governments only succeeded in creating crises centres rather than centres of excellence.
“Unfortunately, the Federal Government appears to have been bitten by the bug of mushrooming universities without giving thought to how to fund them. This sour point is still a work in progress for our union to combat.
“If our university system is to maintain the integrity of credible universities, as known in other sane climes, more work is required to get Nigerian politicians to embrace the idea of developmental universities as against the prevalent over- politicisation of university education,” ASUU stressed.
Commenting on the promise by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led Administration to release the withheld salaries of ASUU members, the Union stressed that any further delay in the release of the monies might lead to a complete mess of what is left of the already devalued worth of the Naira.
According to the ASUU President; “One major fallout of our last struggle was the government’s decision to stop the salaries of our members as a ploy to force us back to work even when the substantive issues in the strike action had remained unresolved.
“Curiously, the seven-and-a-half months’ salaries remain unpaid even after we have done the work for which those salaries were held. It is hoped that the process of payments is fast-tracked before the unmitigated inflationary trends in the country make a complete mess of what is left of the already devalued worth of the money,” he said.
