The National Assembly’s decision to establish 47 more federal institutions has drawn criticism from the Academic Staff Union of Institutions (ASUU), which has a branch at the University of Ibadan (UI).
In an interview with reporters in Ibadan on Tuesday, January 9, the ASUU Chairman at UI, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, made this claim while presenting scholarships to a few deserving students.
Akinwole voiced concerns about the government’s intention to establish more federal universities at a time when it was finding it difficult to finance the 52 that it already had.
“Thinking of adding 47 more universities, we begin to wonder what is the objective. The objective cannot be noble at all.
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“If it is noble, you will see the seriousness in the way the government is handling the existing ones,” Akinwole said.
“Perhaps the House of Representatives and the federal government should answer the question: ‘Why are they establishing 47 new universities when they have not taken care of the ones we have?” he queried.
Since there had been no correspondence to the universities regarding the removal of tertiary institutions from IPPIS, the ASUU head referred to it as merely “noisemaking.”
“No letter, as we speak, has been communicated, either to the bursary or the heads of the institutions.
“All we have been seeing is so much motion without movement,” Akinwole said.
Additionally, he alleged that the government had not given them their four months’ wages as claimed.
