Education
FG urged to curb conflicts affecting varsities
Wale Babalakin
The federal government has been urged to address the conflict between government circulars and University regulations, which have been disrupting the day-to-day running of the universities and creating loopholes for the chief executives to exploit.
The Chairman Governing Council of the University of Lagos, Dr. Wale Babalakin, stated this in his opening remarks at the University of Ilorin’s 3rd Annual Registry Lecture Series, called for the injection of huge capital into the education and health sectors of the country.
He also stressed the need for the revitalization of the country’s education sector in order to boost wealth creation and the sustenance of the Nigerian economy.
Citing the University of Ilorin as an example, the senior lawyer and consummate entrepreneur, who was the Chairman of the occasion, explained that the institution would require a minimum of N60 billion yearly to provide quality education for its 50,000 students population. He, however, noted that the University may be currently struggling to have access to N12 billion a year.
Dr. Babalakin, who is the leader of the 14-member Federal Government team negotiating the 2009 agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), warned that the revitalization of the Nigerian universities cannot be delayed further. He called on all the stakeholders to join hands to seek alternative means of generating the needed funds to drive the nation’s education sector.
Dr. Babalakin advised the University to harvest these conflicting orders and present them to the government for a proper legislative resolution.
In his address, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Sulyman Age Abdulkareem, emphasized that the occasion was a laudable initiative of the vibrant non-teaching staff, who, he noted, are the best crop of non-teaching staff in the entire Nigerian university system.
Prof. Abdulkareem, who was represented on the occasion by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. (Mrs.) S. O. Malomo, stated that the University of Ilorin is ahead of others because of the staff’s uncommon unity of purpose that binds both its teaching and non-teaching staff together and their unwavering commitment to excellence.
“In spite of their versatility and reliability, they nevertheless value the need to continuously enhance their skills, knowledge, and attitude in line with the changing roles and structure of the university system”, the Vice-Chancellor said.
He commended the Registry Department for using the Annual Registry Lecture Series and Monthly Registry Seminar Series as veritable avenues to train and re-train the staff with an apparent aim of developing their managerial skills for dealing with the challenges of the modern university system.
The Vice-Chancellor pledged the continuous support of the management to the Registry in-house training programmes, adding that “the training has been enhancing effective service delivery that is significantly aiding the achievement of our mission”.
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