Universities groan under huge administrative costs – ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed worry over huge administrative cost incurred by many public universities.

Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU President, said this while speaking with newsmen at a two-day programme organised by the union on the state of nation conference on Thursday in Abuja.

The theme of the conference is, “Nigeria in a State of general crisis: the search for a new path to development”.

Osodeke said that most of the internally generated funds from universities were nothing to write home about when compared to the daily or monthly running costs for electricity, security among others.

“We are so challenged, but let me give you a quick example, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, and University Nigeria, Nsuka; what they get from the government account for overhead running of the university in a month is N15million.

“Meanwhile, the University of Lagos needs about N200 million naira to pay electricity bill. It is this IGR that you talk about that is used to pay for the electricity.

“One of the universities today is closing down because they have been given electricity bill of N300 million naira.

“What government gives you to run the system is N15 million, and you get a bill for electricity alone of 300 million naira,”he said.

According to the ASUU president, the IGR is not enough to buy books in the library, or to run the library.

“For whatever reason, they have refused to fund the university systems as it was in the earlier part of our history.

“From the way we are going, if nothing is done, many universities will close up because they can not afford the so called band A and Band B,”he said.

Osodeke also said that the economic situation of some academics in the country had become worrisome.

He said that farming had become even more lucrative for academicians, especially as some professors earned lower than N300,000 per month, and still publish journals.

He also criticised the proliferation of Universities in the country, adding that they are merely running on skeletal manpower as most of the academic staff were out of the country searching for greener pastures.

He said that the situation within the university system was very disturbing.

He also noted how rigging was perpetrated by the polictical class, which warranted ASUU members to stay away from electoral processes after the 2015 general elections.

Osodeke added that, academicians still presiding over elections were doing so in their individual capacities, not as ASUU members.

The Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas, called on ASUU to shelve its planned strike.

Abbas said that there must be other alternative means of resolving industrial disputes in the university system other than the regular resort to strike.

“We must equally strive to maintain industrial harmony and stability through alternative dispute resolution,” he said.