By Kamil Opeyemi and Halimah Olamide
There are indications that students, lecturers and the entire academic communities are upset by Thursday’s directive by the National Universities Commission that all students of universities must go back home for elections.
The NUC gave its directive asking Vice Chancellors to ensure the closure of all universities ahead of the elections in the country.
Nigeria is due for a general election where the next president will be elected.
Many states are also due to elect new governors of retain the incumbents while National and state legislature members are due to be elected as well.
NUC’s directive came just as tertiary institutions were just settling down after 8 months of industrial actions that paralysed the campuses.
NPO Reports findings showed that majority of the stakeholders in the universities are not pleased with the directive.
For instance, as soon as the directive came on Thursday, lecturers at the University of Ibadan had started condemning the directive describing it as another indication of the
Loss of autonomy by the universities.
Media reports had quoted a member of the National Executive Council of ASUU and chairperson of the union at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof Gbolahan Bolarin, as saying earlier on February 1that the NUC does not have the power to shut down the universities.
He said, “The NUC is just a regulatory body. It doesn’t have the power to order the closure of any university. The only authority that can order this closure apart from the Senate of each institution is the Federal Ministry of Education and the order will be given on behalf of the visitor to all the universities, which is the President.
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“By the time the ministry gives the order, the NUC will comply and the directives will be passed down. The House of Representatives should talk to the President about this. The NUC is powerless on this matter.”
A lecturer at the university of Ibadan was quoted as saying “They drafted curriculum for you. They paid and withhold your salary at will. They tell you the class of degrees to award and not to award. The tell you the number of weeks to teach and not to teach. They dictate who to employ and from where or who not to employ. They decided when to give subvention and how much, including when not to give etc, etc. I beg, which power are we still talking about here?
A former Deputy Vice Chancellor at the Osun State University who chatted with the NPO Reports said the university’s position cannot be different from that of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Attempts to speak with the President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, was not successful as at press time on Friday.
A student of the University of Lagos, Adefemi Inaolaji, told the NPO Reports that the decision was not welcome.
He said as soon as words went round the campus on Thursday, there were complaints from students most of whom felt that the directive would further complicate their academic calendar.
President of the Congress of Nigerian Universities Academics, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, said the directive would disrupt academic calendar, which is not uniform, across Nigerian universities.
”Some universities might be close to or writing their examinations. This “blanket” directive appears to take the power of the senate of the various universities from them,” Sunmonu added