Nation's Varsities Deplorable, Says Panel
From Juliana Taiwo in Abuja
Presidential Visitation Panels touring facilities in the nation's tertiary institutions have described the situation in most of the Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education visited so far as stinking. They also observed that academic and physical facilities in these institutions are in deplorable state with insufficient lecture theatres/halls, laboratories, old and obsolete equipment, inhabitable hostels etc.
Senator Alex Usman Kadiri, Chairman, Presidential Visitation Panel to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, who spoke on behalf of other panels, described some of the things that happened in the institutions between 1999-2003 as unbelievable.
"There were cases of dereliction of duties; refusal to carry out directives of the Visitor, poor performances of governing councils most of which were unable to introduce a single productive idea for the development of their universities throughout their tenure; there were Vice Chancellors who, though tough in action and conviction, had little or no regard for rules, fairness and procedures, with a good number of them developing phobia for consultation and dialogue.
"A good number of other principal officers lacked conviction about the needs of their high offices, thereby making the Universities and their activities to revolve around the personality and charm of the Vice Chancellors. As a consequences of poor facilities, a good number of universities especially the old ones, woefully failed the NUC accreditation of programmes conducted in the year 2000", he said.
Kadiri noted that several factors including poor management, lack of focus, lack of funds, unfulfilled promises by Federal Government, idleness and laziness of staff, absence of research due to lack of proper funding, non-payment of salaries and other entitlements as and when due, lack of consultation or dialogue or primitive grandstanding and or authoritarianism on the part of management and councils.
Other factors, he said, included illegality in action and other activities and partial or complete avoidance of stipulated order of doing things, abbreviating committees and their functions and inability to handle fellow human beings in a civilized or decent manner, have all contributed to the tension and attendant crisis on the campuses.
Using Ahmadu Bello University as a case study, Kadiri said it has not purchased any equipment for teaching and research since 1976. He said the institution has close to 30,000 students, over 7,000 staff (academic and non-academic), 22 student hostels, two campuses, 12 faculties and 82 academic departments making it number one in several regards.
"Between 1975 and 1986, ABU had 15 closures due to student protest. There were nine closures between 1975 and 1999 due to industrial action by in-house staff Unions, while between 1986 and 1999, there were three closures due to religious conflicts emanating within or outside the University. These violent upheavals and crisis between 1994 and 1995 led to the closure of the University for one year and the appointment of a Sole Administrator from 1995 to 1998," he said.
ABU, he further disclosed, at inception had a budget of three million pounds. "By 1988, despite its immense growth and size had only N66 million. From 1988 to 1995, the ABU was already a debtor institution. It owed N9 million in 1988, N40 million in 1991, N100 million in 1993 and N270 million in 1995. From this time on, ABU had owned one debt or overdraft and/or the other such as unpaid staff entitlements or inability to fund programmes. Its current dept stands at N2.5 billion".
He disclosed that between 1999-2003, ABU has had 46 Union related strikes made up of short stoppages, disputes and actual strikes, disruptions of examinations etc. Over 40 of the cases (84 per cent) were disputes over issues outside the competence of the university.
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