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Why varsity autonomy law is delayed, by senator
From Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja
UNTIL there is a change of attitude by both the Federal Government and the universities, the University Autonomy Act will not take off, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Senator Emmanuel Okpede said yesterday.
The Senator stated that while the Federal Government kept appointing vice chancellors and delaying the appointment of university councils contrary to the provisions of the University Autonomy Act, many universities had on their part refused to obey the rules of internal revenue generation as dictated by the same Act.
Okpede said: "Universities cannot on one hand be wanting autonomy and not want financial independence. They say they are mature and that nobody should interfere with them, but they want to rely on government for financial upkeeps.
He disclosed that his committee had met with President Olusegun Obasanjo, asking him to encourage the full implementation of the University Autonomy Act by stopping the appointment of vice chancellors for universities.
He said: "I remember two or three weeks ago when we visited Mr. President, we drew his attention to the fact that the autonomy act must be implemented.
"We pointed out to him that since he himself assented to the bill, he has appointed about five vice chancellors for different universities, this is contrary to the spirit of that bill. But in a situation where you have the visitor of the university, namely the President, being the one now approving and appointing vice chancellors, then the autonomy is not yet in place."
The committee vice chairman disclosed that the President was preparing an amendment to the Act. But he stated that the act ought to be implemented before such amendment is effected.
He said: "One other issue is that the spirit of that law can hardly be implemented because the universities themselves have no governing councils. And by the law, where there are no councils, the Minister of Education shall continue to act in lieu of the councils. We appealed to Mr. President to expedite action on the constitution of he governing councils of these institutions."
Okpede advised teachers and other members of the university community to improve on their capacity to generate revenue to allow for improved funding; adding that government would only be providing a baseline amount for the institutions.
According to him, where there is full autonomy, there should be no uniform salaries in universities for teachers
The lawmaker disclosed that considerable peace had been restored to the universities through budgetary allocation for the procurement of teaching equipment and for research.
On the decision by the government to withdraw from providing accommodation for students, Okpede appealed for patience from students. He said that the withdrawal would allow the government to concentrate on the recruitment of teachers, taking care of their welfare as well as taking care of learning and teaching infrastructure."
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