Ex-VC calls for state of emergency in varsities

The pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Caleb University, Lagos, Prof Olurotimi Tayo, has called for the declaration of state of emergency in the university system.

He said this would equip and develop the nation’s education sector and rescue it from collapse.

Prof Tayo said he was making the call because of the current crisis in the university system and the failure of the Federal Government to address the problems in the sector.

The academic spoke at the inauguration of Makoni Hotels on the Ido-Eruwa Road, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The former vice chancellor decried government’s failure to address the nation’s education needs.

He said: “We must call a spade a spade. We will recall that Ghana had to shut down its university system for two years to re-tool and re-develop. Now, we are sending our children to Ghana to go and have university education there. Why can’t we do what is necessary so that we can have quality education. If that is what it takes to make sure that we get it right, then we should do it to make sure we get it right once and for all.

“The basic thing is that education in Nigeria is not being fairly treated. If you are going to have quality development in the nation, you must have quality education. You cannot develop anywhere in the world without sound education.”

The academic, who was the chairman of the occasion, stressed the importance of adequate investment in education.

He noted that most other countries developed by investing adequately in education.

Prof Tayo said: “So, when our governments at every level refuse to give education priority, it means there is no future for our development. What I believe the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is doing is that it wants the government to provide what is necessary to ensure quality education.

“If you have gone through some months and some years of negotiation and you have agreed on the way forward, why can’t the government have the political will to execute that agreement?

“We went through the system, we grew up in this system. We are products of the University of Ibadan (UI). Some of us left Ibadan and went to the best universities in the world. With the quality of education we had in Ibadan, we got Phd without Masters and we came to this system to help to develop it. But what do we have now? The government tend to invest on things that are not germane to development, neglecting education.”

He lashed out at the government for wasting a lot of money on non-essential things.

The former vice chancellor cited the case of the Education Tax Fund (ETF), saying the government lacked the political will to use the fund on what it was established for.

Prof Tayo said: “The ETF came on board because at the point that ASUU was negotiating for a change in the system, the government was asking how fund it. ASUU fought for the establishment of the ETF, saying the government should make companies to donate five per cent of their gross profit to education.

“The military, therefore, made a decree establishing the ETF. Now, ETF’s money is no longer being spent on education; it’s being spent on something else. So, where is the government’s political will to do what is necessary?”

The Chairman of Makoni Hotels, Olumakinde Oni, said there is need for adequate funding of universities to enable the operators produce quality graduates who would become the bedrock of the nation’s development.

 

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