The Federal Government on Wednesday passed a damning verdict on heads of tertiary institutions across the country, accusing them of administering public universities, polytechnics and colleges like their personal fiefdoms.
Speaking in Abuja at the public presentation of 72 TETFund-sponsored published academic textbooks and additional 10 titles of academic textbooks secured by the Fund, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, challenged unions within tertiary institutions to play a more active role in ensuring accountability among the heads of their institutions.
Alausa stressed that academic unions should not shy away from scrutinising the actions and decisions of Vice-Chancellors and other institutional leaders, urging them to demand transparency and responsible leadership in the management of universities and other higher institutions across the country.
According to him, “The government is really not the problem, but you need to help us as a government, direct those searchlights to the heads of your institutions: the Vice-Chancellors, the Rectors and the Provosts.
“Many of them are running those institutions like an empire. We need your help in ensuring that fiducial responsibilities are met and they are held accountable. Every single money we deploy to those institutions should be used the way they are meant to be used. We would work with you to ensure that is done”.
Also speaking at the event, President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Chris Piwuna pledged that the union would intensify its scrutiny of the activities of Vice-Chancellors across Nigerian universities.
Top Society reports that there are 309 universities in Nigeria, consisting of 74 federal, 67 state and 168 private. ASUU, which operates in federal and state universities, has vowed to scrutinise the activities of Vice-Chancellors more closely, accusing them of lacking accountability.
