From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
A former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) of the Ekiti State University, (EKSU), Ado Ekiti, Professor Femi Olaofe, has advised managements of public universities and other tertiary institutions in the country to use their recent exemption from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to develop and transform the university system.
The Professor of Chemical Engineering/ Industrial Chemistry, who expressed delight at the removal from the payment platform, described it as “a highly welcome idea and development.”
Olaofe stated this while speaking with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, capital of Ekiti State, where he urged Vice Chancellors and other Principal Officers of public institutions to see the exemption as a window that they must make full use of, by making judicious use of the resources now at their disposal, deploy and manage them effectively.
His words : “This is the only way we can have an improved training in the tertiary institutions where manpower is produced for the nation. Now, the Universities can settle down and plan their academic works very well and improve on the quality of their products.
“Not that alone, even the university lecturers can do better researches than before by putting improved facilities in place, the workings of the system will be boosted with appropriate management of their financial resources and so on. We are now more or less back to the way they are running it before.”
Similarly, he appealed to the federal government to give the universities 100 per cent of what will pay their entire wage bills and adequate funds for the development of the institutions.
“But what I will appreciate more is that, subvention should cover the payment of salary, development of infrastructure and maintenance of same and all facilities in the Universities and let’s see how the Vice Chancellors, the Bursars and other principal officers are going to manage the financial resources of their Institutions.
“I will also want them to appeal to the management of these institutions to be highly focused and maintain their integrity by being accountable, manage the resources effectively and make a name for themselves by setting standards through the development of the system. This should be the aim of all the management and principal officers of the public universities in the country because bible says “good name is better than gold and silver.”
He also warned against seeing the position of the Vice Chancellor of a university to be a political appointment, saying there are requirements and conditions to be met for anyone to qualify for the post and this is far different from the election of political officers
“It is not a political appointment par se as people will say but our system tends to make it so. There are basic qualifications and requirements one must meet before becoming a VC. You cannot have a first degree and become a VC but with first degree one can be elected as Governor, Senator, etc. or appointed as a minister, Commissioner, etc. First and foremost, someone who is not a Professor can’t become a VC of a university. With school leaving certificate one can even be a Governor.”
On what the administrators of public universities should do to rapidly develop the system. the retired university teacher said, “they should work more on those things that will greatly improve the academic system, research works, students training , laboratory facilities, chemical, water, electricity. training of academic staff and putting every other required facilities and infrastructure in place and spend less on things that are tangentially to academic, like cars, etc.
He lamented the dearth of infrastructure in public universities, saying this is responsible for inadequate accommodations for students in tertiary institutions across the country.
“Our problem in Nigeria is infrastructure. In abroad, not all students are accommodated on campus, a lot of them stay off campus. The university will not have to bother about their transportation or any other thing for them to get to the campus .Trains and buses are available for them with very good accommodation outside the university at a very cheap rate.
“But the institution can take some accommodation for its students outside the university by inviting the landlords to register with them but it is not their responsibility to be collecting the rent.”
The don called on the governments and industries in Nigeria to always consult the universities more for researches rather than giving such things to outsiders.