‘Stop pproving new varsities, fix existing ones’— Ex-ASUU President to FG

Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, the former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has urged the federal government to stop approving new universities.

He said the government should repair the existing ones to meet global standards and provide quality education to the people.

Ogunyemi said this while delivering a speech at a national seminar and retirement celebration held by Sam Akindele, former president President of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU).

In his words: “Nigeria doesn’t need new universities. The structures we are operating, how well are they positioned to deliver? We are talking of establishing more institutions, whereas they (governments) are not catering to the existing ones. Who is deceiving who?

“Go to the National Assembly. You can be sure they have nothing less than 30 Bills proposing new colleges of education; not less than 50 Bills proposing new universities, polytechnics, and so on. Is that what we need?

“How well are the existing institutions delivering? It means those who are there are not connected with the system.

“In 2012, we advocated for the Needs Assessment of public universities in Nigeria. What we came up with within the report was scandalous. The N1.3 trillion that we proposed to fix our universities in six years is real.