22nd December, 2019
Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, National President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has decried the recruitment system in the universities, saying many people are not qualified to teach have found their way into the system.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ogunyemi made this known when he appeared on the agency’s forum in Abuja on Sunday.
“Some lecturers have no business in the classrooms, but they found their way in due to political interference.
“You find that some lecturers probably have no business being in the universities but you know politics has done so much damage to us that sometimes merit is sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity and political connections.
“We hope that we shall restore the credibility of the system as we have been trying to argue over the years. A key step to achieving that is for government to create the enabling environment for us to go back to the renegotiation table.
“We need to talk more so that we can come up with a new agreement package that will help us in addressing our universities shortcomings in no time,’’ Ogunyemi is quoted by NAN.
He noted that such recruitment had done a lot of damage to the university system as not all people in the class are able to teach.
“Teaching is all about passion and not about preference of any sort. It is something natural.”
On why students do not have access to current publication by lecturers, Ogunyemi said that facilities for conducting cutting edge research were in a shambles.
He, however, said that lecturers were doing their best.
“Concerning the publications, Nigerian academics are still doing their best within the limit of their environment. The student population is equally a distraction from research and, without research, you cannot publish.
“ Talking about research, one must have access to current materials which is becoming increasingly difficult because our libraries are no longer stocked as regularly as it used to happen in the past.
“The laboratories are bereft of chemicals and reagents. Modern facilities for conducting cutting edge research are hardly there”, he lamented.
He said that ASUU would continue to advocate for restoration, resuscitation and repositioning of the university system in order to reclaim its enviable position.