Nigeria Universities Updates

The University of Benin (UNIBEN) chapter of the Academic Staff of Universities [ASUU] has pulled out of the scheduled post–UME test which is to hold next Tuesday and Wednesday.

A statement issued in Benin yesterday and signed by UNIBEN-ASUU Chairman, Dr Kenneth Ilavbarhe and Secretary Idaevbor Bello, said lecturers should not participate in the conduct of the test as doing so would mean reneging on the strike currently on.

UNIBEN-ASUU threatened that any student admitted through what they called an otherwise flawed test would not be cleared, registered and taught by members of the union.

It viewed with displeasure the attempt to conduct a test for admission without the involvement of lecturers who are to teach such students.

Reacting, the university authority said it would go on with the planned post–UME test.

Acting-Registrar of the institution, Mrs. Roseline Egborge advised parents to ensure that their wards and children attend the exercise failure of which they will have themselves to blame

She said the Governing Council and management has directed that the test must take place adding that security, supervisory and other logistics have been provided for the exercise ‘and the general public should not panic’.

The Exam is slated for 25th and 26th of August 2009. Students are expected to reprint their slip by visiting www.uniben.waeup.org

Popularity: 11% [?]

The National Universities Commission is the federal umbrella organization which oversees the administration of higher education in Nigeria. With 27 federal universities and dozens (soon to be hundreds) of teaching hospitals and colleges under its wing, the NUC has the potential to change the lives of a million Nigerian scholars and academics.

Federal universities in Nigeria are fairly autonomous, receiving the bulk of their funding directly from the federal government with the NUC simply acting as a conduit. But some portion of the funds are managed by the NUC, giving the NUC the ability to affect change at the universities through “earmarked” funds.

Regional competition for federal monies is a popular blood sport in Nigeria and the universities play hard to get their share. As such, the NUC must be ever vigilant that they not appear to be favoring one region over another, making allocation decisions just a little harder on everyone.

Through a UNESCO-sponsored linkage project with the International Center for Applied Physics in Trieste, Italy, the NUC has been able to train a handful of technicians and develop an email gateway for member institutions who want to participate. The NUC has expressed some dissatisfaction with their ICAP linkage, since they have seen only a modicum of progress in the project’s three-year span and the technicians who have been trained in Italy and elsewhere haven’t made much progress in Nigeria. (It doesn’t help that the NUC and other participating universities consistently lose the technicians who are sent for training to the private sector.)

The NUC runs a project called the Nigerian Universites Network (NUNet) that is designed to encourage universities to invest in digital communication and training. The most successful part of this project is their email gateway with ICAP. Even so, only about a dozen universities use the NUNet email system. The NUNet email system works well on occasion, but has experienced downtimes that stretch into weeks. A handful of universities who are using the NUNet email system maintain dual systems with other Internet service providers. Except for one or two institutions who use an ISP for limited email connectivity, the remaining universities operate without email.

Even the NUC headquarters has little to show for the years of effort: though the building was built with network wiring in every room and a sophisticated backbone and an emergency power supply, only a handful of computers are attached to the network and the only network service is TELNET email access.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The proliferation of unapproved universities across the nooks and crannies of the country is reflective of the alarming degeneration that the sector is undergoing. Generally, our educational institutions are ravaged by abysmal descent which could only mean that the government has lost control over the sector.

We consider as outrageous, the declaration by the National Universities Commission (NUC) that 45 unaccredited universities are operating in the country. The regulatory agency for university education said the institutions, listed in its bulletin last week, had “not been licensed by the Federal Government and are, therefore, operating illegally.” What this means is that they are operating in violation of Education (National Minimum Standards, etc) Act CAP E3 Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

The illegal universities listed by the NUC are, among others: National University of Nigeria, Keffi; Metro University, Dutse/ Bwari; Leadway University, Ughelli; St. Clement’s University, Iyin-Ekiti; Blacksmith University, Awka; UNESCO University, Ndoni; Lobi Business School, Makurdi; Westlan University, Esie; Concept College/ Universities (London), Ilorin; Atlas University, Ikot-Udoso,Uko; Halifax Gateway University, Ikeja; Kings Ambassadors University, Kaduna; United Nigeria University College, Okija; St. Augustine’s University of Technology, Jos and the Royal University, Arochukwu.

The nation at the moment boasts of 78 duly recognised public and private universities, including the Nigerian Defence Academy (only military university); universities of technology and that of agriculture totaling 26. There are 27 state universities and 25 private ones.

The puzzle is why 45 fake universities could be operating in the country and the authorities would be incapable of halting the trend. The issue of fake universities has been a recurring decimal in the nation’s educational history, especially since the apparent destruction of the public ones that are grossly inadequate to meet the high demand for university education by deserving Nigerians. Some months ago, the NUC made a similar claim and yet, the situation is getting exacerbated due to lack of political will to tackle the problem.

It is sad that the NUC has not been able to check the trend despite rampant complaints about falling standards, not only in the universities, but across all levels of the educational sector. More shameful is the fact that the number of illegal universities is more than half of the total number of recognised ones. It is also sad that not much of concrete steps are being taken to close these shanties masquerading as universities.

As things stand, we cannot even vouch for the credibility of some of the so-called accredited universities. Lecturers in the country have been on strike for weeks without any hope that the issues that led to the strike would be resolved anytime soon. This has been the pattern over the years. There are also a lot of facility deficits in the accredited universities which have made some of them glorified secondary schools. It is unfortunate that the nation has to battle with these kinds of tragedies at this point in time.

However, the NUC owes unsuspecting students of these fake universities the duty of care by ensuring that they do not fall victims of 419 promoters. If they are law-abiding investors, why should they not wait for legal approval before opening the institutions to the public? Why the haste?

The NUC’s issuance of a caveat to parents and their wards to shun these illegal institutions is inadequate. There should be penalties for such infraction of the law. The NUC should enforce these to save innocent students the trauma of being awarded unrecognised degrees at the end of their programmes. Nigerians yearn for university education, no doubt; but this vacuum cannot be filled by the unaccredited universities.

Popularity: 3% [?]

This is to inform all Nigeria Undergraduate and Postgraduate students that the 2009 esso mobil undergraduate and post graduate scholarship is out. Deadline date for registration is 26th august. There are three categories of this scholarship. These are:

1. NNPC/ESSO International Postgraduate Scholarship Awards
2. NNPC/ESSO National Postgraduate Scholarship Awards
3. Mobil Producing Nigeria National Undergraduate Scholarship Awards

Below is a brief history of the scholarship.

In 1974 the NNPC/MPN joint venture commenced a scholarship program for undergraduates in Nigerian higher institutions of learning. The number of awards increased from 13 in 1974 to 30 in 1984, to 250 in 1991, and to 350 in 1993. Since 1998, the NNPC/MPN joint venture has made provision to award 500 scholarships annually.

About 60% of those are for core disciplines in Engineering and Geosciences, and the rest are for other professional courses.
Fifty percent of MPN’s Scholarship Awards go to indigenes of the operational communities and the rest of Akwa Ibom State ( 75 goes to the operational communities while 175 to goes the other communities in the state), twelve percent to Bonny and the rest of Rivers State (50 goes to Bonny and 10 to the other communities in the state), ten percent (50) of the awards is given to the best candidates and twenty eight percent of the total awards (140) goes to other states including FCT based on merit and fair geographical spread.

In addition, EEPNL also awards international Post-graduate Scholarships in line with its plan to recruit, train and develop qualified Nigerians to fill positions within and outside its organization. To apply for the scholarship, candidates must have a first degree (First Class or Second Class Upper Division in Geosciences and Engineering obtained from a Nigerian university) and a provisional admission to a recognized University in the USA, UK or any EU country.

By 2008, EEPNL has awarded a total of 56 international post-graduate scholarships. These scholarships carry no employment obligations. Upon successful completion of their courses, candidates are free to work anywhere they choose.

In 2007, EEPNL introduced the National Postgraduate Scholarship program in other to complement the existing foreign scholarship program. To apply for the scholarship, candidates must have a first degree (First Class or Second Class Upper Division in Geosciences and Engineering degree and a provisional admission in a recognized University in Nigeria. 19 awards were made in 2007 and by 2008, the number increased to 30 awards, thus bringing the total number of awards for the National Postgraduate scholarship to 49 awards.

For more information visit: www.mpn-essoscholarships.com for details and requirement

Popularity: 6% [?]

Governors yesterday backed the Federal Government in its battle of wits with university teachers pushing for better academic environment.

They hailed the Federal Government’s stand on collective bargaining, saying it reflects their stand on true federalism.

At the end of the monthly National Economic Council (NEC) meeting which was chaired by the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, the 36 governors said they were pitching their tent with the Federal Government on the ongoing row with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). University teachers have been on strike since June 22.

NEC, which comprises the 36 governors, Ministers of Federal Capital Territory, National Planning, Justice, and Minister of State, Finance, is the highest economic decision-making body in the country.

The governors noted that it will be out of place and against the principle of federalism for the Federal Government to have signed an agreement with ASUU on their behalf.

The governors, who noted that their stand on the strike does not signify that they do not care about the teachers’ plight, however, noted that they would have sued the Federal Government to court if it had signed on their behalf.

They also agreed that unions of state universities should begin negotiations with their governors.

The governors also stressed that they would not go higher than the 40% salary increase earlier approved for ASUU. Their non-academic counterparts would take 20% increment.

This was part of the outcome of yesterday’s National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja. It was presided over by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

As part of measures to douse tension in the universities, the council approved the immediate release of N30billion for the upgrade of six universities, in the first instance. The universities were selected from each of the six geopolitical zones.

Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting in Abuja, Governors Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Babangida Muazu (Niger) and Ikedi Ohakim Ihedia (Imo), said the dwindling national income, coupled with the drifting global economy, had made it unrealistic to sign agreements that cannot be implemented.

Ohakim and Muazu, who spoke extensively on the strike, noted that after considering the situation, the council agreed that both tiers of government should sign agreements based on their capacity.

Mauzu said: “Of more fundamental interests to all of us and that is where you come in, where you can help Nigerians is that in a federal system one arm cannot go and sign on behalf of others. To quote one of my heroes, you cannot shave a man’s head in his absence. Every state should be able to determine what it can pay even though there could be a benchmark from the federal system.

“That is the angle we looked at and said all the governors should support the stand of the Federal Government because if it is signed, what argument can we have for other unions that were built during the unitary system of government? Many of you are familiar that the unions were established in 1978 when it was a military regime, that from the headquarters, once decisions are taken, circulars are given to the governors to implement but if we are going to be testing our constitution, we must, all of us, try to fight for federalism to be established properly in this country for people to appreciate that my unit or my state should be able to negotiate with my employees so that we say, ‘this is the amount of money that we will be able to pay’.

“We will not go below so much … that people will run away but at least we must understand that as a principle. In addition, we also discussed the global economic crisis as a background to all the discussions we had and we realised that virtually all the states, including the Federal Government has lost 40 percent of what it was receiving, say by last year.

“Already, as part of the agreement, the Federal Government has agreed to pay its employees (ASUU members) 40 percent for those lecturing and 20 percent for non-academic staff. Imagine if that happens, other employees start to go on strike. Let us also remember that it is not all ASUU members that are on strike and let us also remember that it is only in Nigeria that strike is still being held by lecturers of universities and we discovered that probably only South Africa is the one that is paying more than what Nigeria is paying. Even universities of Ghana where many of our children go to now, they pay less than what Nigerians are being paid. Even when you compare, you will find out that Nigeria is still ahead. With this increase, it is rather unfortunate that ASUU is insisting that the Federal Government must sign.

“Even if the Federal Government signs, many of the states may take the Federal Government to court for trying to force them to pay something. Believe me we will try as much as possible. You may recall that we even took the Federal Government to court for the deduction of money accruing to the states’ without the states’ permission. It is not everything we discuss about amending the constitution. Some of these things we should try them so that the constitution becomes a little elastic and then interpretation becomes more acceptable to Nigerians.

“We appeal to ASUU because all the things have been satisfied it is only the signature and the Federal Government can’t sign on behalf of others and if it has to sign it can only sign for the employees that it pays. There is no democracy even in the strike. There is a law that says before a strike takes place, there must be a voting where the majority will say it would. Where some people hold an employer to ransom, that is not fair, that is not democratic, and that is out of tune with the federal system. We, therefore, appeal to those who can appeal to ASUU to suspend the strike, and let the negotiations continue. That is where we stand as an organisation.”

Muazu, who also spoke on measures to stop strikes, said accountability in governance was needed. According to him, if leaders are transparent in their dealings, the people will know when there is money.

Ohakim said: “We looked at the situation of the country that the states are federating units and the council reviewed the situation with the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS) salaries that came up early this year and how it was thrashed, we looked at the dwindling income of the Federal Government and craving for increase in revenue, and the situation of the drifting world economy, and that there are certain things the Federal Government can carry and the states cannot carry those things and the council decided that the Federal Government cannot sign any agreement that will be binding on the states because we must consider the ability to pay and the revenue accruing to the state governments. Council has asked the governors to go back to their states and then look at the situation with their finances and then decide what they are capable of paying. This is where we left it but council appealed to ASUU most passionately for the interest of this country and our children to please, even if it means suspending the strike and then continue the negotiation so that we can come to a consensus.”

Popularity: 6% [?]

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has resolved to carry on with the ongoing industrial action to press home its demands for better funding and the overhaul of the Nigerian university system by the Federal Government.

Rising from a three-day National Executive Committee meeting in Makurdi, the ASUU-NEC regretted that the ongoing industrial action by its members nationwide would subsist pending when negotiation with the Federal Government was concluded and an agreement signed to the satisfaction of ASUU-NEC.

Addressing newsman on the communiqué of the meeting, ASUU National President, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, who was flaked by his executives and former presidents of the union bemoaned the roles being played by the Minister of Education, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and that of the Education Tax Fund (ETF) in order to thwart the efforts of President Umaru Yar’Adua and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to resolve the lingering crisis in two weeks.

According to him, the leadership of ASUU and the Federal Government negotiating team had held a meeting with Vice President Jonathan at the end of June where a window of opportunity was opened for further meetings for the peaceful resolution of the crisis.

But he regretted that, “what we witnessed in this first week of meeting is a concerted effort by the Minister of Education albeit assisted by the Executive Secretaries of National Universities Commission (NUC) and Education Tax Fund (ETF), who were at the meeting of July 30, to close this window of opportunity opened by the Vice President’s intervention and also frustrate our collective efforts to amicably resolve issues in favour of the good people of our dear country, Nigeria”, Prof Awuzie said.

According to him, none of the aforementioned government officials “found it appropriate to guide or even inform the Government Team on the outcome of the dialogue we had with the Vice President even though they all attended the meeting”.

He stressed that though the negotiating teams were mandated by the Vice President, to resume negotiation on the 3rd of August, 2009, with a directive that another member of the team chair the session pending the return of the chairperson while the Minister of Education was directed to adequately brief the government team on the widow that dialogue had opened towards resolving the impasse, this he noted has been frustrated.

The ASUU National President said, “although we were invited to resume the renegotiations on Monday 3rd as directed, we have spent the first week without achieving anything because the Vice President’s directives were not implemented”.

“When we arrived for the meeting on Monday, the acting chairman, Prof Greg Iwu was only interested in knowing whether ASUU had suspended the strike or not and he was informed that a NEC meeting has been scheduled for this week to review the situation. And when he was asked to present government’s position on the Draft Agreement, it became clear that he had not been briefed and he subsequently adjourned the meeting”, he said.

Prof. Awuzie informed that same was the case when Dr Gamaliel Onosode returned to his position as chairman, when he insisted that he was not briefed adequately by the Minister to warrant the changing of “his position of July 10th, 2009 as communicated to ASUU awarding a 40% increase in salaries and completion of negotiation with individual university councils. He stated that he was not aware of any meeting with the Vice President.”

He regretted that one week after receiving instructions from the Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, the Minister of Education could not produce a list of the ‘contentious issue’ that would guide the resumed renegotiation exercise.

He noted that this was the first time in recent times that they had been called upon to defend the very existence of unionizing and unionism hinting that an axe has been laid on the roots of the principle of collective bargaining , the survival of which distinguished the modern society from its primordial predecessors of feudal system, where they had perpetual lords and serf from birth maintaining that they cannot sentence themselves to perpetual slavery.

The ASUU leadership stated that “ordinarily we would have suspended the industrial action, but because one week out of the two granted by the Vice President for the resolution of the impasse and the union is not sure that the intervention of Mr. Vice President will yield any positive result considering that the June 2007 intervention of the Mr. President was scuttled by bureaucrats hence ASUU-NEC is not sure that this intervention on the instance of Mr. President will not suffer the same fate.

“It is therefore with heavy heart that ASUU-NEC resolved that the industrial action will only be reviewed if and when the instructions of Mr. Vice President are fully implemented,” he declared.

Popularity: 3% [?]