Vice-Chancellor, Wellspring University, Benin, Edo State, Prof. Godson Igborgbor, has blamed the incessant disruption of academic activities in the nation’s tertiary institutions on the Federal Government insincerity.
Bemoaning the current industrial action by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Igborgbor noted that the crises in the universities were caused by government’s uninspiring approach to managing the sector.
He said, “I used to be part of it, one way out of this is for people, stakeholders, government and even lecturers to be sincere.
“When after negotiations government says it will do something, it ought to be sincere about its pledge.
“We must admit that the education is an expensive venture and when the government representatives go into negotiation, they should be able to say this is what we have.”
He added, “Government is still establishing more universities, but I think what it ought to do is to expand and fund better the existing ones. All universities do not have to produce engineers.
“A university that is well funded and is productive will fund itself and that is the issue. Nigerians have gone to several other countries with the knowledge they got from Nigerian universities to benefit other nations, so what we need to do is to make our programmes more usable, more result-oriented.”
