Prof. Olu Obafemi, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, has urged the federal government to appropriately fund the country’s public universities.
Mr Obafemi, a well-known poet, made the plea during a public lecture hosted by the University of Jos chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in Jos, Plateau State.
The theme of the public lecture was “Government’s commitment to funding public universities in Nigeria: The past, present, and future”.
The don, who lamented that the country’s current budgetary allocation for education was drastically inadequate, stressed that adequate funding would discourage Nigerians from travelling to foreign nations to pursue university degrees.
According to UNESCO standard, budgetary allocation for education should be 26 per cent, but over the years, our budget for education has never gone beyond eight per cent. In fact, the 2024 budget for education is seven per cent.
He said, “Over 70 per cent of the crisis within university education is caused by poor funding and mismanagement of resources and the struggle to make government to right the wrongs has been the reason for the incessant strikes, particularly by ASUU.
“Poor funding is a major impediment toward the growth of public universities and this is why Nigerians send their children to Europe or poorer African countries to acquire university degrees.’’
Earlier, Prof Emmanuel Osadeke, the National President of ASUU, praised the chapter for holding the public lecture to commemorate 2024 Heroes Day.
Mr Osadeke added that the day was set aside to honour their dead colleagues, particularly those who died in the service of the union.
The national president, who praised the Federal Government for removing universities from the Treasury Single Account, acknowledged that more should be done to better the lots of public universities and education in general.
He stated, “We have been struggling for years, but nothing has changed. Lecturers do not need palliative from the government but proper funding that will guarantee good welfare packages for them. Today, a university professor in Nigeria earns less than $200 dollars while a lecturer I takes less than $50 dollars.’’
On his part, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, promised to support the struggle by ASUU towards tackling the challenges facing public universities in the country.
”If not for ASUU, public universities would have been grounded just like public primary and secondary education. So, the government must ensure absolute autonomy for the university system; that will enable managers of these institutions to run them effectively,” he said.
In a brief welcome address, Dr Jurbe Mwolwus stated that Heroes’ Day was established in 2014 to honour departed and retired colleagues.
He stated that union members will remain united in their efforts to ensure that the higher education system receives the attention it deserves.
The event was headed by Prof. Monday Mwangvwat, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos.