Pro-chancellors urge Tinubu to revisit pending issues raised by university unions
By Funmilayo Adeyemi
The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian universities (CPCNU) has called on President Bola Tinubu to revisit the pending report of the Federal Government Negotiation Committee set up by previous administration.
The committee made the call in a communique issued in Abuja CPCNU Secretary General, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, at the end of the body’s 99th regular meeting.
Ochefu said regular meeting of the committee brought together Pro-Chancellors from 50 federal universities.
He said that the Committee of Pro-Chancellors (CPC) had constituted two Ad hoc committees to deal with some thematic issues such as alternative funding of universities and university autonomy.
”The meeting discussed various issues pertaining to the state of affairs and wellbeing of the Nigerian university system and strategies for sustaining the proper conduct of academic activities in Nigerian universities.
”Members of the CPC congratulate President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima on their inauguration as President and Vice President, respectively. CPC looks forward to working closely with the administration to realise its vision for the tertiary education sub-sector.
”The Pro-Chancellors salute the affirmation of Mr President to uphold the sanctity of university autonomy and create the right and enabling environment for teaching, learning and research.
”CPC looks forward to working closely with the government to sustain this vision and ensure that the existing laws in this direction are firmly upheld,” he said.
He commended the President for agreeing to increase funding to education, realised through the new Students Loan Act, which was signed into Law on June 11, to create broad access for more qualified Nigerians to benefit from tertiary education.
He said the committee would work with the new administration to further discuss with the federal government to fine-tune this novel initiative.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that former President Muhammadu Buhari on June 6, 2022 constituted another 14-member committee to look into the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other university-based staff unions.
The Federal Government said that the new committee which will be chaired by former minister of education, Adamu Adamu, will revisit the recommendations of the Prof. Nimi Briggs-led committee in charge of the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.
Earlier, the government had tasked Briggs, an emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, to lead a team of other scholars to review an earlier draft agreement between the unions and the dissolved Jubril Munzali-led committee.
However, after the submission of its report, which the then striking ASUU described as a product of collective bargaining, the government reportedly reneged on its agreement to implement the contents of the report.
This development, ASUU has rejected and has gone on to indefinitely extend the seven-month-old industrial action, saying there is no going back until its demands are acceded to.
Adamu had said the government offered a 23.5 per cent increase for all workers in the university system and 35 per cent for professors, saying it is all the government can afford.
But all the unions rejected the offer, insisting it does not meet the recommendation in the draft report submitted by Briggs-led committee. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
edited by Sadiya Hamza
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