The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has once again rejected the new list of governing council members for federal universities recently released by the Federal Government.
ASUU National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, who expressed disappointment over the composition of the list, noted that the list was worse than the previous one it equally rejected.
Osodeke, who observed that the list was mostly made up of retired politicians rather than technocrats, said besides the calibre of people on the list, the newly constituted council was illegal, given that the councils dissolved by President Bola Tinubu’s administration were yet to conclude their tenures in line with the University Act upon which they were constituted.
The ASUU President urged the Federal Government to desist from playing partisan politics with education and recall the Governing Council’s it dissolved 10 months ago to complete their tenures rather than constitute fresh councils.
He said: “Go and look at the list again, you will see that most of them are retired politicians. They are honourable this and honourable that. What does that tell us?
“That is how terrible the thing has become. And we can’t run our universities like this if we truly want genuine development to take place,” he said.
Meanwhile, ASUU’s original concern on the university governing councils is not even about the calibre of personalities in the old list that was released last month and later reviewed to pave way for the current list but that it was totally illegal for the Federal Government to constitute new councils when the old ones it dissolved over 10 months ago were yet to complete their tenures in line with the University Act upon which they were constituted for the first instance.
The union said the Federal Government should have recalled them to complete their tenures rather than constituting fresh councils, arguing that the university education is not something to play partisan politics with if Nigeria truly wants quality education that will bring real economic prosperity.
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Education