The Federal Government has raised concerns over the management of Nigerian universities, accusing some heads of tertiary institutions of running their schools like personal empires and calling for greater accountability in the use of public funds.
Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, made the remarks on Wednesday in Abuja during the public presentation of 72 academic textbooks sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), alongside an additional 10 titles secured by the Fund.
Alausa urged academic unions within tertiary institutions to play a more active role in ensuring transparency and responsible leadership among Vice-Chancellors, Rectors, and Provosts across the country.
According to him, unions should not shy away from scrutinising the actions and decisions of institutional heads, stressing that government interventions in universities must be properly managed and accounted for.
“The government is really not the problem, but you need to help us as a government by directing the searchlights to the heads of your institutions, the Vice-Chancellors, the Rectors and the Provosts.
“Several of them are running those institutions like an empire. We need your help in ensuring that fiduciary responsibilities are met and they are held accountable. Every single money that we deploy to those institutions must be used the way they are meant to be used,” the minister said.
He assured that the Federal Government would collaborate with academic unions and other stakeholders to ensure that funds allocated to tertiary institutions are properly utilised for teaching, research, and infrastructure development.
Also speaking at the event, Chris Piwuna, National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), pledged that the union would intensify its scrutiny of the activities of Vice-Chancellors across Nigerian universities.
Piwuna expressed concern that funds allocated to universities are often poorly managed at the institutional level, noting that ASUU would take a more proactive stance in monitoring how resources meant for the development of higher education are utilised.
“I’ve argued with the Chairman of TETFund that sometimes you even give too much money to universities and they are not accounting properly for it.
“You have plenty of money being given to universities. They have not utilised it, or they mismanage it, and they come back because, as sure as the Northern Star, they know next year TETFund will give them another money,” he said
The ASUU president emphasised that greater transparency and accountability are necessary to ensure that funds intended for academic growth, infrastructure, and research are not misapplied or diverted.
Piwuna also criticised TETFund for extending support to private universities, arguing that the intervention fund was primarily established to strengthen public tertiary institutions funded by the government and serving the majority of Nigerian students.
According to him, channeling resources meant for the development of public universities to private institutions could undermine the core mandate of the Fund.
“Our churches that have universities and some other organisations, even members of the church, cannot sponsor their children to those universities, and so TETFund cannot continue to subsidise people who have gone into business as private universities.
“If TETFund continues to support private institutions, we believe it will incentivise private individuals to continue to establish private universities,” he added
Data from the National Universities Commission (NUC) shows that Nigeria currently has 309 universities, comprising 74 federal, 67 state-owned, and 168 private universities.
This means private universities, numbering 168, now outnumber the combined total of federal and state universities, which stand at 141.
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