The Federal Government has approved the constitution of Visitation Panels to oversight the activities of all federal universities in the country.
Prof. Abubakar Abdulraheed, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, made this known on Monday in Abuja.
He stated this at the 2nd Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities.
The conference has the theme: “Respecting the Sanctity of Collective Bargaining in Democracy.”
Abdulrasheed said the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, had secured the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari to dispatch visitation panels to all public universities in the country.
He said the constitution of the visitation panels was in line with the laws that stipulate visitation of public universities once in every five years.
According to him, the respective panels, which will soon be inaugurated, are expected to tour the universities and bring back a 10-year report, in two separate batches of five years each.
“The report will cover a period between 2011 and 2015 and from 2016 to 2020,” he said.
The NUC boss also said the incessant strikes by various unions at the tertiary education level was affecting the progress of the university system.
Abdulrasheed, therefore, called for the unification of all the unions within the university system under one single body.
He said: “The polarisation of the university system, where each of the union comes up with their individual demands to the Federal Government is constituting bottlenecks for government to accede to their demands.
“This is why the Nigerian university education cannot match up to their peers abroad academically.”
Abdulrasheed added that talks were ongoing to convince the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress to invite all the various unions to a roundtable to see reasons why they needed to come under one umbrella.
Unions under the university system include the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Non Academic Staff Union of Universities, National Association of Academic Technologists and SSANU.
Abdulrasheed said there was the need for the unions to enter into negotiations with the government with one voice.
According to him, it is regrettable that most times government and individual unions lock horns negotiating for better welfare packages for the staff at the detriment of the students.
He said: “No university in the world can operate effectively in isolation.
“It is frustrating that the university system in Nigeria has been polarised by various unions.
“You have NAAT, ASUU, SSANU, all negotiating for different things.
“Most times, while one group is negotiating with government, others are warming up for strike unless their demands are met.”
Abdulrasheed also said the Federal Government has reconstituted an eight-man committee to harmonise and finalise existing agreements between government and the unions.
He said the need arose following the resignation of Dr. Wale Babalakin as chairman of the universities renegotiation committee.
He also noted that letters of appointment would be handed to the appointees by Tuesday or Wednesday.
Samson Ugwoke, SSANU National President, said the biggest challenge faced by the union was the lack of respect of agreements duly and freely entered into by government at all levels.
Ugwoke said: “The 2009 FGN/SSANU agreement is a case in point of how agreements freely entered into are not implemented and even when some aspects are implemented, they are done in breach.
“As we speak today, salient aspects of the 2009 agreement with respect to Earned Allowances, career structure and progression of our members, encroachment into non-teaching units by academic staff among others, are yet to be implemented.
“This is despite the fact that we had embarked on series of strikes between 2009 to date, in order to drive home our demands for government to respect the agreements.
“The outcomes of those strikes were further Memoranda of Understanding or Terms of Settlement between the union and the Federal Government.”
Ugwoke said the Joint Action Committee of the Non Academic Academic Staff Union of Universities and SSANU had developed an alternative salary payment platform solution to the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System.
He added that this is the University General and Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System with all the characteristics of ensuring probity and efficiency in salary payments in the university system.
“The system will capture the peculiarities of all categories of staff, teaching and non teaching, a strength which IPPIS does not have and which has been its bane all along,” he said.
Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, called said on government to keep to negotiations and collective bargaining entered with various unions as a way of ensuring industrial harmony in the country.
“It is not enough to bargain without upholding whatever has been negotiated and agreed upon. Government must honour agreements,” Wabba said.
