The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has raised concerns about the selection of the vice-chancellors of universities, citing the VC selection process at Alvan Ikoku University of Education, Owerri, Imo State.
The union expressed dismay that universities had been turned into commodities for politicians and contractors, rather than promoting merit and scholarship for which the institutions should be known.
ASUU, in a statement signed by its president, Christopher Piwuna, said, “Our union is also gravely concerned by decisions of some governing councils at the federal and state universities. Universities that are built on merit and scholarship have been turned into commodities for politicians and contractors in the appointment of Vice Chancellors.
“ASUU condemns the attempt to bring back the Ag. Vice Chancellor of Alvan Ikoku University of Education, despite clear evidence to the fact that her promotion to the rank of a reader and professor was fraught with a lot of contradictions, similar things are unfolding in federal universities,” the statement partly read.
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Lecturers Not Happy
Lamenting the welfare of academics in public universities across the country, the union said lecturers are not happy as they teach students on empty stomachs and conduct research in libraries and laboratories bereft of essential electronic and physical journals, books, chemicals, and reagents.
“They engage with communities and agencies in rickety cars while encumbered by utility bills, children’s fees, house rents, family upkeep, and a legion of other unmet responsibilities. Yet elite Nigerians are quick to blame the universities for “producing unemployable graduates” and for failing to initiate innovative research for addressing the country’s problems. Our members feel forgotten, shamed, and demoralised by past and present governments,” it stated.
ASUU said it had ceaselessly warned owners (government and visitors) of public universities – the Federal and State Governments – of the consequences of breeding a disempowered, dissatisfied, and disorientated intellectual workforce.
According to the statement, at the centre of the union’s advocacy is respect for collective bargaining principles as enshrined in the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention No. 98 of 1949 and Convention No. 154 of 1981.
It stated that the “flip-flop” disposition of successive governments towards collective bargaining had created an atmosphere of distrust that would take extra efforts and energy on the part of the current Federal Government to dispel.
“Nothing illustrates this antipathy better than the frustrated attempts to conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, despite submission of a draft agreement by the Alhaji Yayale Ahmed committee to the government since December 2024, eight clear months ago!
“Every major dispute ASUU has had with governments since 2012, when the 2009 agreement was due for renegotiation, emanated from failure to respect the provisions of the signed document on (i) conditions of service; (ii) funding; (iii) university autonomy and academic freedom; and (iv) other matters including the review of the laws governing the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB),” the statement partly read.
ASUU urged Nigerians to prevail on the federal and state governments to address all lingering labour issues in the Nigerian university system to avert another looming industrial crisis.
The union stated, “Nigerian academics are tired of governments’ excuses, which have only left them with a long list of Memoranda of Understanding/Memoranda of Action (MoUs/MoAs) – 2013, 2017, 2019, 2020 – and kept them talking over the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement for upward of eight years!
