The Benin Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has decried infrastructural decay and poor funding of Nigerian universities.
At a news conference at Delta State University, Abraka on Wednesday, the zonal coordinator, Prof. Monday Igbafen, also complained about the “proliferation of universities.”
He said the briefing aimed to inform the general public about avoidable paralysis that could occur in Nigeria’s public universities due to the government’s actions and inactions.
Prof. Igbafen disclosed that a 2020 ASUU-FGN Memorandum of Action mandated the review of the Nigeria University Commission (NUC) Act to enable it to stop the federal and state governments’ expansion of universities without sufficient funding.
He emphasized that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund’s (TETFund) intervention funds have been under much pressure due to politicians’ “careless founding of universities.”
Politicians announce these universities as constituency projects without adequate funding, the ASUU chief said.
He urged the governments to halt the proliferation of universities and fund the existing ones to enable them to compete with the world’s best educational institutions.