Abuja Bloggers

PROF. FAJANA URGES ASUU AND GOVERNMENT TO END INDUSTRIAL ACTION The Vice-Chancellor of Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Professor Sola Fajana has urged the Federal Government and the striking universities lecturers to finally come to a round-table discussion and nip the protracted issue in the bud. Speaking as the guest for the week in an up-to-date weekly programme at Ondo State Radiovision Corporation; ‘Facing Facts’, Professor Fajana remarked that if the literacy deficit in the country is  appropriately scrutinized, one would realize that the Academic Staff Union of Universities is right with its demands and decisions. He however appealed to both parties to address and resolve the issues which he said are inherent in the educational sector, which has been long underfunded by the government. The Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, who had served as Secretary of ASUU, UNILAG Branch for 5 years, lamented the effect such strikes often have on the university system, which he described as a process with myriad levels, that is; once the process is affected at a particular level, the whole process suffers. Reacting to the threat issued by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) regarding shutting down the private universities in the country, the university administrator who has traversed various nations of the world stated that the intended act is unwarranted.  He disclosed that if that action was carried out, it would have been misplaced because the wards of the country’s political leaders do not study in Nigerian universities, but in the ones outside the country. Professor Fajana also commended the monitoring, regulatory and supervisory roles of the National Universities Commission (NUC) which are aimed at ensuring apposite quality control for tertiary education in the country, and also to compete favourably with their counterparts all over the world. According to him, for instance, apart from the requisite and fundamental minimum benchmarks in ambits as prescribed by the Commission, the regulatory body would not allow any university to admit students beyond the its carrying capacity. The Vice-Chancellor of the First Entrepreneurial University in Nigeria, JABU, ascribed the frequency of the traffic on the University’s website as one of the basis for the recent webometric rating which ranked the faith-based institution as the first among the country’s private universities, and 9th among all Nigerian universities. He declared that the University has over 60 renowned professors on its payroll. These professors, according to him had uploaded their robust profiles on the University’s website, and that had attracted lots of traffic to the website. On a final note, the Vice-Chancellor advised that the nation needs to diversify and discontinue from depending on crude oil as the only source of revenue. He asserted that although the mineral resource was a blessing to the nation, it is fast becoming a jinx. He felt that now that other countries are discovering crude oil, before long, the focus of the patronizing nations would soon shift from Nigeria.