The National President, of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Issa Fagge Nasir has stated that the 16 universities and other higher institutions established by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, lack the necessary legal backing and so may be living on borrowed time.
He said this while commenting on the four Colleges of Education upgraded to Universities by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
In his words, “Our quarrel with the government is that universities are not just established by executive fiats like this administration is doing. So the Federal Government is only compounding the problems already bedeviling the education sector and I wonder if the incoming administration will allow this to stand.
“Strictly speaking, the Federal Government is not respecting its own laws, and I wonder how you just transmute an institution without looking at its laws. What happens to its staff, facilities and infrastructure?”
He further stated that the 500M Naira released by the Goodluck led administration as take-off grant to the universities is not even enough to fund training of staff not to talk of infrastructural Upgrade.
He finally called on the incoming administration to critically assess these decisions and make impartial judgment that will benefit the mass of the people and return the country’s education sector’s lost glory.