MARGARET CHIDERA
Pro-chancellors of Federal Universities have accused staff of Accountant General of the Federation and those from the Auditor General’s office of extortion of money from institutions when they come for inspection.
According to chairmen of the governing councils of the universities, the officers negotiate with the institutions, as if they were buying goats in the market and refused offers to the tune of N2million.
Munzalki Jibril, pro-chancellor of Federal University Lafia and the chairman committee of pro-chancellors of Federal Universities in Nigeria said this at the national summit on Tertiary Education, organised by the House of Representatives in Abuja on Wednesday.
Jibril said autonomy of the universities, especially financial one was the way out of the current crisis in the university system and tertiary education generally.
He joined other stakeholders in advocating absolute autonomy for tertiary institutions for optimal performance, as it will give them the opportunity to properly go into partnership for funding of the institutions.
The emeritus professor of English said: “We got the autonomy law of 2003 which official name is universities miscellaneous provision amendment act 2023 which actually gave birth to the universities governance autonomy. That’s why we’re now able to appoint our vice chancellors without reference to the minister or to the president.
“We wouldn’t have people from the Accountant General’s office come at the end of the year to say they want to inspect the books of the universities or the Auditor General’s office and these are people coming to extort money and they negotiate as if they’re buying goats in the market, if you give them N2million they leave it and walk away, you have to beg.
“But what remains to be given is the financial autonomy. We are now classified as parastatals of government. That’s why we have the problem with IPPIS. If we were not government parastatals by classification we wouldn’t have anything to do with IPPIS.
“The position of the committee of pro- chancellors is, universities should revert to the status quo ante, that is as autonomous self- governing institutions, grand aided by government.”
Various panelists had earlier demanded for total autonomy for universities and tertiary institutions, saying absence of it limited them in pursuing Public Private Partnership (PPP) for structural and human development.
Lilian Salami, the Vice Chancellor of University of Benin recalled that there are people who wanted to provide accommodation in her institution but demanded a duration of 15 years to recoup their funds and the university lacks power to grant such demand.
“In one direction we are saying, people please and invest and help the university system and on other hand, we are saying we have these bottlenecks which we cannot surpass,” she said.
Lanre Tejuoso, the pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos, said there was need to change PPP environment but decried the lack of absolute autonomy inhibiting the process.
“Without the autonomy of our universities, to have our own banking system that we can control, not the Treasury Single Account (TSA) there is no way we can do PPP successfully. The banks too will be interested to fund PPP on infrastructural development if they know they can control the inflow of income for that PPP.
“So autonomy is the bedrock of how we can make a difference in the PPP collaboration for the transformation of our universities,” he said; adding that government should allow universities decide how to spend funds as it would aid bargaining powers of universities while negotiating PPPs.
In another panel discussion, Hauwa Imam, the vice president of Commonwealth council for Education Administration and Management, accuses members of the National Assembly of hijacking Commonwealth scholarships for their children and ward.
Imam lamented that children or wards of ordinary Nigerians do not have access to such grants, saying her own son had participated in such exercise came top in the assessment but was denied the opportunity.
But Julius Ihonvbere, Chairman House committee on Basic Education dismissed the accusation, saying neither he nor any member of his committee has ever gotten commonwealth scholarship for his or her ward.
The professor of political science said: “Let me take personal exception to the comment made by the last speaker that members of the House of Representatives shared commonwealth scholarship.
“How many scholarships come to Nigeria. I am chairman, House committee on Basic Education, no member of my committee got a commonwealth scholarship and I didn’t get so don’t generalise, that is what she said, that it was shared by all members. Don’t talk like that. There are still some honourable members there who go by the rules.”
Meanwhile, Sulaiman Abubakar, Director General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILD), called on the National Assembly to pass a resolution to prohibit further issuance of licenses to establish more universities.
He identified the challenges bedeviling tertiary institutions to include poor funding, limited access by the less privileged and the poor; inability to attract and retain top level academic, proliferation of universities, sexual abuse, exam malpractice, selling of grades among others.
On the other hand, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), kicked against the proposed students loan scheme, saying it would create additional problems than the existing ones.
Emmanuel Osodoke, the president of ASUU said with the current high rate of unemployment in the country, it would be impossible for students to repay such loans after graduation.
On his part, Usman Barambu the NANS president said they will not accept the scheme because it was like increasing school fees through the back door and threatened to embark on a protest more than that of EndSARS if the policy succeeds.
Barambu said: “This issue of students loan is like bringing another tuition through the back door because today, if you increase school fees, I’m speaking on behalf of over 40.1 million Nigerian students. What happens during the EndSARS would be just one per cent.”
Femi Gbajabimila, Speaker of the House and sponsor of the bill, explained that the student loan scheme is safe from defaulting because a student must be an indigenous, and must also have two guarantors.
