COMMITMENT TO RESOLVE INCESSANT ASUU STRIKE ACTIONS

According to Babalakin, thesd institutions contribute less than N500million to each federal university.

Also, some Minsitries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) also intervene directly in the funding of federal universities. Citing the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Science and Technology, Babalakin said they contribute to the Federal Universities of Agriculture and Federal Universities of Science and Technology directly.

He added, "let us generously allocate N1billiob a year as the contribution from these various sources to the relevant universities. Thus, where we are today is that the federal government through all its funding sources contributes approximately 22.5 per cent of the total requirement of running a proper federal university system."

This he said raised the question of where the shortfall will come from. He noted that ASUU and other stakeholders actually believe that the funds are available in the system but are simply not properly harnessed, accounted for or expended.

Admitting that one is not in a position to provide answers to this, he however revealed that the current budget of the federal government stands at N8trillion for total budget, 41 per cent for recurrent expenditure, 28 per cent for capital expenditure. 23 per cent for debt servicing, five percent for statutory transfer and three per cent for sinking fund. Accordingly, he said the total revenue available to government is 41 per cent recurrent plus 28 per cent capital, and when total in amount of money available to government comes out at 69 per cent of N8 Trillion equals to N5.5 trillion. Of this amount of money, he said 41 per cent is for paying salaries, which stands at N3.28 trillion.

He futher stated, "this regime has made it clear that staff welfare is paramount to it. This item is not available for any other thing than the payment of salaries. Please note that this 41 per cent will be higher in light of the likely increase in minimum wage. The 28 per cent available for capital projects amounts to N2.24 trillion. Assuming full funding of the budget, N2.24 trillion is not a lot of money for a country with poor infrastructure, serious health issues, security challenges including an unending internal insurrection."

For Babalakin, the challenge is how to convince government to make the N1 trillion identified above available from these resources for the university education system.

Proposed Way Forward

The committee went on to state that their proposed way forward encapsulates the fact that the federal government should provide enough fund for the education system, but in a sustainable manner.

However, they noted that the provision should be balanced given the other gaping needs from other sectors. According to the committee, their position remains that should the federal government make available the sum of N1trillion every year to fund university education which is equal to 70 per cent of the total capital releases for 2017, which was N1.3b?

In their opinion, this is not realistic in a country that has other competing needs such as infrastructure, defence, security, health and other needs that require government's urgent attention, adding that we

cannot continue to subject the funding of the university system to the vagaries of the availability of government resources and swinging political dispositions of political office holders.

Other Challenges

According to the committee, funding is not the only problem of the university system. They stayed that most of the previous negotiations have proceeded on the basis that the critical problem of university education is funding.

Babalakin said: "While we admit that funding is a very serious problem, we are unable to concede to the proposition that increase in funding will necessarily increase the productivity of the universities. In our view if we increase funding without adjusting the structural defects in the system, we will not have an enduring solution to the problems of university education in Nigeria. The list of issues to be addressed are quite extensive, however we will seek to identify the most salient ones.

"Another problem is that universities cannot function properly as large bureaucracies, rather they must be run as institutions designed to promote scholarship in an intellectually competitive environment and not a bureaucracy. Outstanding performance must be rewarded appropriately by various University Councils.

"University Councils must be constituted in a manner that councils can provide the leadership it requires. In present day Nigeria, universities must be led by persons who have a serious commitment to the university system and not those who are mainly representatives of the ruling party.

"In addition, the leadership of the federal universities should reflect the geographical diversity of Nigeria. Our position is that out of the five principal officers of the university who occupy the positions of vice chancellor, deputy vice chancellor, registrar, bursar and librarian, not more than three of these positions should be held by persons from the same geographic zone.

"There must also be cohesive supervision of federal universities. The university educational system must be supervised in a harmonious manner without compromising its self regulation. The idea of certain universities being supervised by other ministries such as the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Health is not appropriate. Whatever contributions those ministries want to make should be routed through the Ministry of Education in order to achieve a centrally coordinated supervision of the university education system."