ASUU had also argued
after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa that the
initiative would not allow universities to have enough funds to function
effectively.
But NANS said that
contrary to ASUU’s assertions, the scheme represents a ray of hope for many
students, especially those facing financial hardship.
It therefore advised the umbrella boy of university teachers
not to interfere in the implementation of the scheme that would provide a
‘nobody’ access to higher education.
“If ASUU has any genuine concerns or reservations about the
programme, it should address them openly
and transparently. It is time for ASUU to prioritise the interests of students
and support initiatives that will benefit the entire student community,” NANS Senate President Akinteye
Babatunde, told The Nation yesterday.
Babatunde said it was disheartening for ASUU to oppose a programme dedicated to providing
much-needed relief to countless students.
“ASUU’s attempts to speak on behalf of students regarding
the Student Loan Programme are unwarranted and unacceptable. Students are
perfectly capable of voicing their own opinions and advocating for their own
interests. ASUU should not speak for students without consulting them
directly,” he added.
ASUU had after its
NEC meeting said it was sceptical of the loan scheme because similar
ones in better-managed economies failed.
It wondered why the initiative would succeed in a clime
where corruption, nepotism and other unsavoury tendencies killed the Education
Bank project after over five years of its existence.
The union stressed that if state and federal governments
truly wanted to invest in the lives of Nigerian students, grants and
scholarships should be made available to them while the Needs-Based Budgeting
System should be restored to the university system for greater efficiency.
ASUS also decried the dissolution of the governing councils
of federal universities, saying it was dismayed by the continued attacks and
erosion of the autonomy of public universities.
It said: “Vice-chancellors, in connivance with the federal
and state ministries of Education are illegally running the universities.
“They have taken over the functions of the council through
illegal contract awards, approval of promotions, and recruitments without
following due process. NEC condemns these anomalies in strong terms. It calls
on state and federal governments to reverse themselves where governing councils
were dissolved without serving their terms and reconstitute councils whose
tenures have expired.
“Vice-chancellors are also strongly advised to stop taking
matters meant for councils to the ministries or commissioners for approval;
this has great consequences for the future of the universities.”
The union urged the federal and state governments to, as a
matter of urgency, release all the withheld salaries and third-party deductions
of academics to restore their fading hope in the university system and Nigeria
as a country.
It warned that to continue to ignore ASUU’s formal and
informal demands in this respect is to invite an avoidable industrial crisis in
the system.
“NEC condemns in its entirety the wave of fee hikes without
inputs of the victims across our campuses. Daily scandalous reports of
stupendous funds diverted from government treasuries at state and Federal
levels reinforce our belief that resources available to the country could
support government-funded university education –without excessive pressures on
parents as currently done,” ASUU added.
The union said that if the Federal Government had kept fate
with its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of 2013, which provided for N1.3
trillion over six years, many universities would have been restored to a level
at which they could attract foreign students and become renowned for
cutting-edge and transformative research.
It urged the Tinubu
administration to urgently initiate moves to conduct another needs assessment
to empirically verify the call for massive intervention in public universities.
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