Nigeria Approves New Private Varsities As ASUU Strike Continues

Penultimate week, precisely on Wednesday, 6^th April 2022, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria approved the issuance of provisional licences for the establishment of new 12 private universities across the country.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed disclosed this to the State House correspondents at the end of the Council meeting, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the minister, the universities in question would be located in Kano, Niger, Gombe, Sokoto, Delta, Abia, and Anambra States as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

He said: “Council approved the memo for the issuance of provisional licences for the establishment of twelve proposed private universities.

“The proposed private universities are Pen Resource University Gombe, Gombe State, Al-Ansar University, Maiduguri, Borno State, Margaret Lawrence I University, Delta State and Khalifa Ishaku Rabiu University Kano, Kano State.

“Sports University Idumuje Ugboko, Delta State, Bala Ahmed University Kano, Saisa University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Sokoto State, Nigerian-British University Hasa, Abia State and Peter University Acina-Onene, Anambra State as well as Newgate University, Minna, Niger State, European University of Nigeria in Duboyi, Abuja and the North-West University Sokoto. ”

Mr. Mohammed stated that the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba presented the memo on behalf of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and it was conbsequently approved by the Cabinet.

The Information Minister further highlighted that each of the new universities would be mentored by the old ones situated nearer to them.

He went ahead to argue that establishment of additional universities for an over 200 million-populated country was necessary if the policy of educating a larger percentage of youngsters was to succeed, perhaps contrary to the insinuations among many Nigerians in various quarters.

It’s noteworthy that, in a related development, the FEC gave approval to the FCT to revise the estimated total cost of the contract for the extension of the Inner Southern Expressway, from the Outer Southern Expressway to the Southern Parkway, among sundry issues discussed therein.

It could be recalled that the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on a one-month warning industrial action on 14^th February 2022 to press home their demands as regards the lingered 2009 Agreement and the subsequent Memorandum of Action (MOA) entered between the Federal Government (FG) and the Union.

The strike was subsequently pronounced to be indefinite upon expiration of the initial warning part, reportedly owing to the FG’s inability to address the issues squarely as expected by all the concerned parties, particularly the Union members.

It’s worth noting that the other unions on the universities’ campuses, such as the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) eventually joined in the industrial action.

Hence, as I write, the loggerheads between the aforementioned stakeholders – which aren’t unusual – still linger to the utmost worry and bitterness of the citizenry and the affected parents/guardians who are currently of the view that the FG does not care about the country’s education sector.

Amidst the strike whose end is yet unknown, Nigerians were informed that twelve new private varsities would be established across the country.

This unequivocally ostensibly indicates that the government is gradually shifting responsibilities of the Nigeria’s education industry to mainly the private sector, which indeed does not augur well for the citizens and the country at large if painstakingly considered.

Thereafter, barely less than one week after, on 12^th April 2022 to be precise, Nigerians were equally informed of the FG’s intention to establish three more polytechnics within the shores of Nigeria, precisely in Kano, Abia and Delta States.

At this juncture, any rational and right thinking Nigeria ought to be of the notion that the government is getting tired, if not already exhausted, of managing public varsities situated across the country.

When no tangible remedy has been found, or may not be considered, to resolve the ongoing impasse between the governments and the university teachers and technologists, the FG was more apparently concerned on how to establish new tertiary institutions. This indeed is enough reason to worry about Nigeria’s education sector.