Posted by The Punch on
The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Abdullahi Sule-Kano, on Wednesday raised alarm over alleged deteriorating conditions of private universities.
The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Abdullahi Sule-Kano, on Wednesday raised alarm over alleged deteriorating conditions of private universities.
He told journalists in Abuja that the union was already noticing signs of decay in the private universities.
He said that the union was worried that some of the private universities were already going to the old generation universities to "beg for reagents and chemicals to carry out practical."
"Some have had to send their students to do attachment with the older universities. So where is the so called viability in the private university system?" he asked.
He noted that more fundamental was the fact that private universities were not likely to fund research.
"Research is an academic activity that takes long time and it is expensive. For a person who wants to make quick profit, he will not put his money into research," he said.
The ASUU boss noted that also worrisome was the fact that private universities were " scavenging for lecturers at the conventional universities."
He said that the headache of conventional universities was that most lecturers were under pressure to move to private universities to become associate lecturers.
On the court verdict, he said that the ruling of the court on the sacked Unilorin lecturers vindicated the union's position that the lecturers were innocent of the accusations against them.
He said that they were confident that the court would remedy the injustice done to the lecturers by the university authority.
"Our hope is that the Council of University of Ilorin will put the matter to rest by respecting the judgement. A tendency, which for a long time has been manifesting at the University of Ilorin is that the university authority at times tends to be lawless.
"So we hope they will be very reasonable, respect their Council and also respect the court so that the matter will be laid to rest once and for all," he said.
The lecturers were sacked for allegedly participating in the 2001 national strike embarked upon by ASUU members.
The PUNCH, Thursday, August 04, 2005