The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) declared that 16 universities and other higher institutions established by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan are illegal.
Issa Fagge Nasir, ASUU National President stated this on the recent conversion of four colleges of education to universities by the Federal Executive Council, FEC.
Nasir announced that the conversion is an assault on the Acts establishing the colleges, saying that universities are not only established via executive fiats but through thorough consultations with stakeholders and deep understudy of the pros and cons of such decisions.
Issa Fagge Nasir stated: “Our quarrel with the government is that universities are not just established by executive fiats like this administration is doing. So the Federal Government is only compounding the problems already bedeviling the education sector and I wonder if the incoming administration will allow this to stand. Strictly speaking, the Federal Government is not respecting its own laws, and I wonder how you just transmute an institution without looking at its laws. What happens to its staff, facilities and infrastructure? Academic institutions like universities are the bedrock for national development and so are not run without defined mandate and vision, and using them to achieve political gains will only further compound the nation’s problems.”
He also called on the incoming administration to critically assess these decisions and make impartial judgment that will benefit the mass of the people and return the country’s education sector’s lost glory.