FG Accuses VCs of Running Universities Like Personal Empire

FG Accuses VCs of Running Universities Like Personal Empire

FELICIA ONAH, Abuja

The Federal Government has criticised the leadership of some tertiary institutions in the country, accusing certain vice-chancellors and other heads of higher institutions of running their schools like personal empires without adequate accountability.

Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, made the remark on Wednesday in Abuja during the public presentation of 72 academic textbooks sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), alongside 10 additional academic titles secured by the intervention agency.

Alausa urged academic unions and stakeholders within the higher education system to take a more active role in scrutinising the activities of institutional leaders, including vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts, to ensure transparency in the management of public funds.

According to him, academic unions must not shy away from questioning the actions of administrators in their institutions, particularly regarding the utilisation of funds allocated by the Federal Government.

“The government is really not the problem, but you need to help us as a government to direct the searchlight to the heads of your institutions; the vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts,” he said.

“Several of them are running those institutions like an empire. We need your help in ensuring that fiduciary responsibilities are met and that they are held accountable. Every single money that we deploy to those institutions must be used the way it is meant to be used.”

Also speaking at the event, the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Chris Piwuna, pledged that the union would intensify oversight of the activities of vice-chancellors across Nigerian universities.

Piwuna expressed concern that funds allocated to universities are sometimes poorly managed at the institutional level, stressing that ASUU would adopt a more proactive stance in monitoring how resources meant for academic development, research and infrastructure are utilised.

“I’ve argued with the chairman of TETFund that sometimes you even give too much money to universities and they are not accounting properly for it,” he said.

“You have plenty of money being given to universities. They have not utilised it, or they mismanage it, and they come back because as sure as the Northern Star they know next year TETFund will give them another money.”

The ASUU president also faulted the extension of TETFund interventions to private universities, arguing that the fund was primarily established to support public tertiary institutions funded by government.

According to him, diverting resources meant for the development of public universities to private institutions could undermine the core mandate of the intervention agency.

“Our churches that have universities and some other organisations; even members of the church cannot sponsor their children to those universities,” he said.

“TETFund cannot continue to subsidise people who have gone into business as private universities. If the fund continues to support private institutions, it will encourage more individuals to establish universities primarily as business ventures.”

Data from the National Universities Commission (NUC) indicate that Nigeria currently has 309 universities, comprising 74 federal, 67 state-owned and 168 private universities.

The figures show that privately owned universities now outnumber federal and state institutions combined, a trend that has continued to generate debate among stakeholders over funding priorities and the future of public higher education in the country.