Falola: How FG, ASUU can effectively address poor university funding

Toyin Falola, renowned professor of history, says Nigeria needs to do better on addressing the quality of its educational system.

He spoke on Monday at the fourth Prince Tunde Ponnle annual lecture, held at the Osun State University (UNIOSUN) main campus in Osogbo, the Osun capital.

Falola, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin, expressed concern over the repeated strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), adding that government needs to be more forthcoming on promise delivery.

“Another clog to the wheel of the Nigerian university system is some activities of my counterparts, the ASUU. It is understandable that they have, in most cases, risen to help salvage what is left of the university system as well as advocate for its reforms,” he said.

“However, the methods of using conflicts to engage the government is losing their relevance gradually.

“The effect of this is the subjection of the system to long-term closure with little to show for it in the long run. This is because the government has become used to this strategy and has been developing a thick skin to the agitations.

“The government also must be ready to always deliver on its promises no matter what, as many of the demands of the union have been made genuinely.

“It is understandable that the government may try to make arguments from the vantage point that it has too many financial commitments to society and that education is not the only concern of the government.

“It is important to remind the government that the growth and the future of the country are largely dependent on the potency of the educational system.”

Falola also advised ASUU on the need to tackle corruption where it exists within universities, while for the government, policies such as the treasury single account (TSA) should be properly adapted to the university system.

“The union also needs to start taking definitive steps in ensuring that misappropriation of funds and all sorts of corruption in universities are shunned,” he said.

“The same energy used in agitating against the government must be harnessed toward bringing sanity to the university system. Whosoever seeks equity must do equity; the union cannot fight corruption or request for revitalisation if it cannot fight the rots within the system. This will make all the demands make sense.

“An affront to the university’s autonomy in any encroaching way possible, will, in the long run, cause problems in the generation of funds and the development of the system.

“The government must realise that the system is special and the introduction of policies like the TSA, without proper adaptation to the peculiarity of the university system, would cause more hardship than the intended changes.

“Lack of autonomy affects the generation of internal revenues as there is a tendency for unstable business. While the government asks that the university generates part of her income, it would be posing itself as the reason they could not achieve that.”