Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, President Association of Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, on Wednesday said the National Assembly is distracting university vice-chancellors from carrying out their duties through incessant invitations to Abuja to face committees.
He also said that undue interference with the autonomy of the university system by the federal government is affecting academic activities negatively.
Osodeke who spoke while featuring as a guest on Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily monitored by QUEST TIMES said most vice-chancellors are being distracted from carrying out their duties by Ministries and other government agencies who frequently invite them to Abuja to face committees.
According to him, ASUU is ready to work with the new Minister of Education to “restore the dignity of our universities and our lecturers so that we can compete with other universities in the world”.
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“The autonomy law for universities enacted in 2003 is there. If we follow that law and allow it to run without interferences from the bureaucrat, the university system will be fine”.
“Let me read a section of the miscellaneous Act to you. The powers of the governing council which is going to run the university shall be exercised as the law and statutes of the universities and to this extent, establishment circulars that are inconsistent with the law and statutes of each university shall not apply to the universities”.
“But Today, no Vice-Chancellor can employ a staff, a professor without getting permission from the office of the Head of Service. Is that done anywhere? Is that not interference? As of today, university governing councils cannot pay the salaries of its workers. Is that not interference? Those are the interference that we are talking about”.
“As we speak, no vice-chancellor will not be invited less than two or three times in a month to come to Abuja and appear before a panel or committee in the National Assembly, House of Reps, Office of the Accountant-General. When will they have time to run their universities? Is that how it was in the 70s and 80s?”