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Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Lecturers under the umbrella of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have explained the role of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in saving public universities from extinction.
They claimed if not for their strong insistence on better system, the public university system would have collapsed long ago because government, obviously, never showed interest and commitment to the cause of quality public university education system.
ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who was a guest on Channels Television morning programme, Sunrise Daily, yesterday, said it was sure that public universities would have gone the way of public primary and secondary schools which have nearly gone into extinction due to inadequate support, attention and funding from government.
“So, let us acknowledge what ASUU has brought to the system that ASUU has kept the system going, otherwise public universities would have collapsed totally,” Professor Ogunyemi stated on Monday.
“Each time people talk about this problem has been there for long, they don’t also appreciate the solution we have brought to the system to keep the system going.
“But for ASUU’s intervention, we would no longer have public universities today. Do we still have public primary schools? Do we still have public secondary schools? That is what will happen to public universities.”
He made reference to infrastructural transformation being experienced in public universities due to the intervention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
“TETFund is a brain child of ASUU and the evidence of its interventions are there for all to see. If not for TETFund, the infrastructural and other development deficit in public tertiary institutions would have been loudly pronounced. Other human capacity opportunities wouldn’t have come. TETFund’s intervention is conspicuous in all public universities across Nigeria.”
He, thus, asked parents and students to disregard the effort of some people, in and outside government, to discredit ASUU and incite the people against the Union, encouraging them to join ASUU’s fight for a better University system that would support research and development, as well as human capacity development.
As the union and government fail to reach a compromise, he accused the government of manipulation and playing a game of deception.
The ASUU president, however, urged students and their parents to show understanding with the union in its pursuit of a better university system in the country.
“It is not enough for people to continue to blackmail ASUU; ASUU has been the live wire for the system in the last 20 years, otherwise our public universities will have ceased to exist.
“I want to appeal to our students and their parents to appreciate what ASUU is trying to do, we want to bring our universities to the level that they will be proud of their certificates,” he said.
On the contentious University Transparency Account System (UTAS), Prof. Biodun insisted that the platform locally developed by ASUU is more efficient than Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) currently being used by the Federal Government in management of its personnel.
