VEECUBED community: Scrap NUC now

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yesterday, called on the federal government to scrap the National Universities Commission (NUC).
ASUU, in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, by the chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of the union, Dr Segun Ajiboye, also asked the National Assembly to beam its searchlight on the activities of NUC.

The statement said: “NUC has failed to reposition Nigerian universities as shown by the NEEDS assessment report carried out by genuine academics, which contradicted NUC’s accreditation exercises, which gave a “controversial” clean bill of health to most universities’’.
The statement maintained that there was no way the NUC or any of its leaders could absolve themselves from the rot in the university system, having emphasised the proliferation of universities in the country at the expense of sound education.

According to the statement: “Enough they say is enough. Time is now for the government to beam a searchlight on the activities of the NUC. The education committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives have an arduous task to do here. Nigerians are calling for dismantling of an omnibus body that has done the country more harm than good. NUC must go’’.
The statement said that the ASUU cannot be blamed for the controversial NUC accreditations, adding, “Rather than blaming the union, Professor Julius Okojie, should take full responsibility for all the deeds in the NUC”.

On the ongoing lecturers’ strike, the statement said that ASUU would not allow itself to be fooled again with “promissory notes” of the federal government which had never worked in the past.
It maintained that the strike would not be suspended on any “promissory note” by the federal government, adding that this time around, “ASUU will not allow itself to be deceived again’’.