How to stop proliferation of varsities, by ASUU

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities ( ASUU) has expressed worry over the proliferation of tertiary institutions across the country amid meagre funding of existing ones.

The union accused the Federal and state governments of establishing new institutions when they could not fund existing ones.

It, therefore, proposed that rather than abdicate responsibilities to the Tertiary Education Tax Fund ( TETFUND), proprietors of such universities should be allowed to self- fund them for the first five years before seeking intervention of the agency.

ASUU National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who made the submission at Tetfund’s strategic planning meeting in Abuja, kicked against the growing trend of governors establishing new institutions in the twilight of their stay in office.

Osodeke said: “We have proposed to the National Assembly, and I think TETFUND can bring that as part of its policies that for any university or polytechnic to benefit from the agency, the owner must have funded it for at least five years.

“That way, a governor who is starting a new university will not have access to TETFUND projects till he leaves office. That will reduce this proliferation of universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.”

The ASUU chief said rather than focus on building structures, attention should equally be given to equipping them.

Osodeke also accused some tertiary institutions of negligence in implementing the agency’s projects in their domains.

Specifically, he cited the case of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa, Anambra State, where three dialysis machines were left to rot without putting them into use.

This, he added, was discovered when he joined the TETFUND monitoring team to inspect its projects across the country.

Checks from the website of the National Universities Commission ( NUC) revealed that Nigeria has a total of 262 universities, comprising 52 federal, 63 state- owned, and 147 private universities. Similarly, the National Board for Technical Education ( NBTE) puts the number of federal polytechnics at 40; state- owned at 49 and private at 76.

There are 70 federal and state- owned colleges of health, while 17 are privately owned.