By Cletus Akwaya
In view of certain misrepresentation published in a section of the
media on the activities of the Needs Assessment Implementation
Committee for the Nigerian Universities chaired by the Benue state
Governor, Rt. Hon Gabriel Suswam, Ph.D, CON, it has become necessary to
once more inform the public on the commendable work being undertaken
by the committee. It is hoped that the following explanation will
correct the misinformation being peddled by mischief makers to discredit
the work of the committee and impugn the reputation of its Chairman,
His Excellency, Dr Gabriel Suswam.
On July 4, 2013 the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
embarked on a nation-wide strike to press for the implementation of the
2009 Agreement signed with the Federal Government. One of the critical
issues in the Agreement is the urgent need to provide critical
infrastructure on the university campuses or rehabilitate existing
facilities in deplorable state of decay.
In order to tackle the problem of gross infrastructural deficit on
the campuses in a systematic manner, the Federal Government set up a
Needs Assessment Committee made up of Federal Government officials
drawn from relevant agencies, representatives of the Governing
Councils of the universities and ASUU. The Committee toured all the
federal and state universities in the country to obtain first hand, the
status of infrastructure on the campuses with the view to ascertaining
the quantity and quality of facilities required on each of the
campuses that would make learning, teaching and research more conducive
for both the students and lecturers.
A comprehensive report made from this exercise and a technical report
drawn from the main report was presented to the National Council on
Education, the highest policy making body on education matters in the
country for ratification. The report was also presented to the Federal
Executive Council and the National Economic Council which variously
approved the report. Having received the necessary approvals, the stage
was set for its implementation hence the setting up of the Needs
Assessment Implementation Committee for the Nigerian Public
Universities.
The Committee headed by Benue State Governor, Dr Gabriel Torwua
Suswam held its inaugural meeting on August 1, 2013 after its earlier
inauguration by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. It has as members a
Senator representing the Senate Committee on Education, Honourable
Member representing the House of Representatives Committee on Education,
the Ministers of Education, Labour and Productivity, Group Managing
Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Governor of
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Executive Secretaries of the Tertiary
Education Trust Fund(TETFund) and Petroleum Technology Development
Fund(PTDF), Chief Executives of the National Communications
Commission(NCC), National Universities Commission(NUC) and
representative of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation(SGF). Other members of the Committee include the
representatives of ASUU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU)
and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).
Since its inauguration, the Committee took up its assignment with
vigour and commitment leading to the successful mobilization of
N100billion for injection into the university system in the area of
provision of infrastructure. But achieving this feat within a few weeks
was not an easy task. Governor Suswam, the Chair of the Committee
deployed his immense experience in handling labour matters in his state
as well as his lobbying skills as a former Legislators and his
understanding of bureaucratic processes as governor of Benue state to
bear on the assignment while harnessing every useful idea from Committee
members for the desired result.
The first strategy deployed was to pool all contributions of the
Federal agencies to the provision of infrastructure to universities
which was hitherto done in haphazard or uncoordinated manner. This
strategy saw the NNPC, CBN, PTDF, NCC, and TeTFund all bring huge sums
of money which amounted to the N100billion raised for the first phase of
intervention in the provision of critical infrastructure on the
university campuses.
The next critical step in the committee’s assignment was how to
distribute the N100billion to the state and federal universities in line
with the Needs Assessment Report. To this end, a technical
sub-committee was set up with representatives of ASUU to work out a
formula for disbursement of the funds. The sub-committee benefitted
immensely from the expertise of the ASUU representative, Dr Baffa, in
the adoption of technical criteria as students population to
determine how much funding would go to a particular university. The
sub-committee relying on figures contained in the Needs Assessment
report categorized the universities into three. The first category was
those with students population of 30,000 and above, the second category
had universities with students enrolment of between 25,000 and 29,000,
the third category comprised universities with students size of between
15,000 and 19,000 while the fourth category had universities with
students population of between 5,000 and 14,000.
The Technical Sub-Committee report was presented to the main
committee for adoption. It was at this point ASUU wrote to the Committee
announcing its intention to discontinue participation from meetings of
the committee. The Committee nevertheless, adopted the report of its
Technical Sub-committee and approved disbursement of various sums out
of the N100billion to the 59 benefiting universities.
From the template approved by the Committee, the University of Ibadan
has received N3.25billion; Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and the
University of Benin have received N3.2billion; while Bayero University
Kano, Universities of Ilorin, Jos, Lagos, Maiduguri and Nnamdi Azikiwe
University Awka have received N3.05bilion each from the Fund. The other
public universities also received various sums of money from the
N100billion intervention package.
The funds were disbursed directly to the Vice Chancellors and
Chairmen of the Governing Councils of the universities at a meeting held
on 23rd August, 2013. The management of the various universities and
their Councils were directed to quickly complete the procurement
processes and get the projects started. The Committee further directed
that both the renovation works and new projects initiated should be
completed within 12 months. The disbursed funds are to be committed to
the construction of new hostels of various sizes, renovation of existing
hostels, building of new lecture theatres, classrooms, laboratories and
libraries in accordance with the priority needs of the universities as
already captured in the Needs Assessment Report.
It is important to emphasize that the Presidential Implementation
Committee headed by Governor Suswam has nothing to do with the award of
contracts under this programme as the Governing Councils of the
universities have the overall control of the funds disbursed to their
respective institutions. All the contracts are therefore being awarded
by the respective Universities without any interference whatsoever by
the committee. For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Suswam and
members of the Committee have said they would have nothing to do with
the contracts and have accordingly consigned themselves to the
monitoring role to ensure the projects are executed according to the set
standards. Already, the committee has dissolved into six sub-committees
to monitor the projects in universities located within the six
geo-political zones of the country.
At this point it is pertinent to return to the concerns raised by
ASUU on basis of which it opted out of the committee. ASUU’s action
was premature and not based on the realities of the situation. For
instance, the Committee disbursed the whole of N100b to the 59
universities. There no part of the money reserved or withheld. No
amount was “pinched or pilfered”. And there were no behind the table
dealings as the disbursement was done in the most transparent manner
with all the Vice Chancellors in attendance at a meeting with Chairmen
of their Governing Councils.
Also, the disbursement of the N100b was based on the criterion of
population of students as proposed by ASUU while the choice of projects
in each university was based on the projects scheduled in the Needs
Assessment Report which was prepared by the Federal Government in
partnership with ASUU.
The other issue worthy of further elucidation is the quantum of funds
to be injected into the system for provision of infrastructure. In
ASUU’s view, the 2009 agreement provided for N100b capital injection to
stimulate the process of infrastructure on the campuses. This was to be
followed by a progressive increase on an annual basis up to the tune of
N400b by 2014. The Federal Government unfortunately could not commence
this aspect of the agreement in 2009. The Federal Government position is
that although there were delays in the implementation of this aspect of
the agreement, having commenced the process in 2013 with N100b, there
would be annual progressive intervention in the following years.
Chairman of the Committee, Governor Suswam has repeatedly assured that
based on the assurances received from the sources of funds (federal
agencies) more funds would be mobilized and progressively applied to the
identified needs of all Nigerian public Universities. It is evident
from assurances received that funds for the intervention package for
2014 will surely increase and possibly double in quantum. What this
means is that the Universities would in the same vein progressively
increase the quality and quantity of their infrastructural facilities in
2014 and beyond in tandem with the expected increase in funding.
— Akwaya is Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to Governor Suswam.
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