BREAKING: FG may grant universities autonomy

Nigeria’s federal government is considering granting financial autonomy to universities in the country, as a critical measure to arrest incessant strike action by lecturers and other university employees.

Former Minister of State Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, disclosed this Sunday night while speaking on Channels Television programme, Sunday Politics, monitored by RELIABLESOURCENG.COM

Nwajiuba, who resigned his office to contest for the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the universities autonomous law needed to be reactivated and already a proposal for a funding structure is before President Muhammadu Buhari.

“I have proposed, and the Minister of Education (Adamu Adamu) will continue discussing this with Mr President, a new scheme in which universities have a different way of earning money to be able to care for themselves,” he told anchor, Seun Okinbaloye.

“Because you see, there are only 50 of these federal universities and there are 200 others (privately owned). However, these 50 alone are (accommodate) more than 75 percent of the number of students in the entire university structure – about 2.2 million of them.

“So, it is important we give them a funding structure; we need to bring a funding structure to the table because this coming hand-in-cap to the Federal Government at all times cannot be continued and is not sustainable,” he explained.

READ: ASUU ‘fights to finish’, extends strike by 12 weeks

Nwajiuba, who was the first minister to resign, prompting President Buhari to order all other ministers and political appointees, aspiring to various electoral offices to resign, said if given the opportunity as elected president, he would implement the policy.

The former minister had kind words for the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella association of university lecturers, saying ASUU is not only fighting for its welfare but for the entire university community in Nigeria.

According to him, “In the last 20 years, we have had nearly 16 strikes. So, my position has not been that ‘Please, ASUU is talking rubbish’, no, this is not true. ASUU is making a case for the entire university system.

“The only point of departure is that we have asked ASUU that strikes cannot cure the problem.

“ASUU should reconsider the option of strike and work with government.

“This government has done more than any other government to work with ASUU.

“We need our children back in school. It hurts parents; it hurts us.

“My own children are here. I don’t have children in private universities.” Nwajiuba said he has four children; while two have already passed through the public university system in Nigeria, two others are currently caught up in the imbroglio between the Federal Government and ASUU.