A former Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, Mr.
Munzalin Jubril has carpeted the federal government for the lingering
crisis rocking the nation's university system.
He said the federal government should be blamed for the protracted
strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), adding that
the sector was grossly underfunded.
Jubril, spoke on Tuesday at anniversary lecture of the National
Universities Commission tagged NUC @ 50+1, marking the 50th anniversary
celebration in retrospect.
According to him, successive administration in the country never
paid adequate attention to university education, particularly funding in
defiance to advice of NUC, which is the regulatory body.
He spoke just as the federal government has assured Nigerian
students that the over three months strike by ASUU would soon be over.
Supervising Minister of Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike, who gave
the assurance in his remark on the occasion, expressed the commitment of
the government to end the stand-off.
Wike, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Education, Dr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, also said NUC had played
significant role in the efforts toward resolution of the strike.
The guest lecturer and former Assistant Secretary-General of United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO,
Prof. John Daniel, however, noted that the global economic crisis had
put tertiary education in precarious situation world over.
He further noted that the government lacked integrity to have confrontation with the ASUU leadership.
Jubril, also faulted the process of direct funding to universities,
saying this was responsible for mismanagement of the funds allocated to
the institutions because the commission had never been involved in the
disbursement and monitoring.
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