The universities have operated without a governing council for close to a year since Mr Tinubu dissolved them in June.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday issued President Bola Tinubu a two-week ultimatum to reinstate the dissolved governing councils of Nigerian universities.
Since Mr Tinubu dissolved the universities in June, they have operated without governing councils for close to a year. The dissolution affected all public institutions, including polytechnics and colleges of education.
In a statement signed by the union’s president, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil science, ASUU described the dissolution as illegal and contrary to the Universities Miscellaneous Act.
The union said the “illegal dissolution” has paved the way for illegalities in the Nigerian university system.
Therefore, ASUU asked Mr Tinubu to reinstate those whose tenure had yet to elapse and reconstitute those whose tenure had elapsed.
ASUU noted that it would reconvene in two weeks to review the situation and “take a decisive action to address the issues.”
“Nigerians should hold the federal and state governments responsible if the matter of governing councils is allowed to snowball into an avoidable industrial crisis,” it said.
ASUU also accused the Nigerian government of channelling funds accruable to Tertiary Education TrustFund (TETFund) to the Students’ Education Loan Scheme.
“This is antithetical to the original intent of the Law establishing the Education Tax Fund which now operates as TETFund,” it said.
ASUU said the TETfund grant should not replace adequate and regular budgetary allocations by federal and state governments for capital and recurrent expenditures in the public universities.
“NEC enjoins the federal government not to divert TETFund resources to funding loans so as not to water down the impact of its intervention. In addition, both Federal and State Governments should rise to their responsibility of adequate funding to arrest the emergent rot and decay that are becoming more noticeable on the campuses of Nigeria’s public universities in spite of the intervention efforts of TETFund,” the union said.
ASUU said there are no serious efforts by the Nigerian government to address the lingering issues that forced the union to embark on an eight-month nation wide strike in 2022.
Other perennial issues
Other grievances listed by the union are perennial issues that have pitted it against the Nigerian government in the last decade. They include the non-renegotiation of its 2009 agreement with the government, the proliferation of universities, underfunding of the universities, and the continuous use of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) for payment of their salaries.
ASUU has also rejected the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standard (CCMAS) developed by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
