The Academic Staff Union of Universities ((ASUU) on Wednesday kicked against plans to include private universities as beneficiaries of interventions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, who made the union’s position known at a two-day interactive session between TETFund and all unions of beneficiary institutions, noted that such a move would lead to the proliferation of private universities devoid of quality.
Osodeke, who commended TETFund for its interventions in tertiary institutions in the country, urged the agency to work more on the monitoring method of its projects across the country.
The ASUU president noted that the level of performance by the beneficiary institutions are not in tandem as some of them received the same amount of money.
He also called on TETFund to apply sanctions on non-performing institutions, while advocating for the abolition of what he referred to as “stakeholders fund.”
Osodeke said: “ASUU will continue to embark on strike until the right thing is done in our tertiary institutions. Stakeholders’ funds should be abolished.”
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, noted that the interactive session was conceived as a proactive engagement against the backdrop of the prevailing challenges in the sub-sector.
Echono noted that the engagement was also for the purpose of sustaining steady growth and development of tertiary education while stressing the need to consistently engage and challenge one another on how best to improve the situation.
He said: “It is our fervent hope that this interactive session will provide an enabling environment for us to understand some of our challenges and difficulties in the delivery of quality education in our institutions and thereby make a meaningful contribution to the successful execution of the objective of the Fund.
“As you all know our primary mandate is to rehabilitate, restore and consolidate Tertiary Education in Nigeria, using funding alongside project management.
“The session is also expected to serve as a platform to discuss and mitigate incidences of industrial disputes in the tertiary education sector and look at ways to prevent and avoid their occurrences.”
Echono stated that the interactive session would afford the opportunity to build and solidify cooperation and collaboration between the agency, its beneficiary institutions and the Unions on matters that affect the growth and development of tertiary education in Nigeria.
He said: “As stakeholders and partners, we intend to share with you all that we have done and continue to do.”
A former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who spoke on ‘The Role of Trade Unions in TETFund Intervention Activities’, commended TETFund for its strident commitment to the elevation of university education and experience for both lecturers, non-academic workers and the student population in various campuses all over the country.
Wabba noted that the NLC had benefited a great deal from the ideological clarity and consistency of the unions in the tertiary institutions.
He said: “The patriotic and historical resistance of the Congress against the debilitating influence and impact of neo-liberal policies of the successive government in Nigeria drew a lot of inspiration and verve from the intellectually sound positions advanced by unions in our tertiary institutions.”
Credit: The Nation
