FG indicts varsities over poor research output

*appeals to labour over strike

By Egena Sunday Ode

The federal government has expressed concern over the low quality and relevance of research emanating from the nation’s institutions.

Minister of Education, Mamman Tahir, who gave this position after Monday’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the presidential villa, Abuja, regretted that tertiary institutions are not meeting up with the needs of the country and advancing the nation’s
development.

He said: “The council made some observations on research output from research institutes across the country and expressed concern about the institutes not living up to relevant and valid proper research that meets the requirement of Nigeria or that takes the country to the level of development and that is the major role of research institutes in developing countries.

“The council wants to see our Tertiary institutions play those roles while ensuring there is sufficient funding for those activities.”

He said government will now hold the management of public higher institutions accountable for the prudent administration of its financial resources and strict compliance with establishing laws and regulations setting up the institutions.

He explained that the council had approved a note presented in December 2023 as regards the pulling out of the public higher institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPS), and approval of recruitment waivers to the public institutions, thereby providing opportunities for the institutions to manage their affairs.

Mamman noted that the council stressed the need to remind the public tertiary institutions of their obligations under various laws setting up the schools

He added that the FEC has resolved to hold account managers of the institutions over any glitch of regulations.

Mamman said: “The Minister of Education had a note to the council and the Council approved to him as it relates to Higher education as it was taken in December if you recall but the council thought it is important for the university to be reminded of their obligation under the various laws that sets up the universities.

“This time around council will hold to account their management for any glitch of regulation which will be communicated to them and the effective date for this was the middle of December last year so henceforth these regulations will be conveyed to them so that they can be free to manage the university line with the various laws setting them up.”

Mamman stated that the tertiary institutions will now employ staff only when there is budgetary provision for the need thereby taking into consideration the ratio between academic and non-academic staff, he said this must not be bridged.

“These all pertain to ensure that public tertiary Institutions employ staff only when there is budgetary provision for it and there is also a ratio between academic and non-academic staff which must not be bridged it is 1 to 5 as prescribed by the universities commission and there is a limit to per time staff that can be recruited that is restricted to senior lectures and above for particular period which should not exceed one year.”

Meanwhile, the federal government has appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to show understanding over efforts to address their demands.

Minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, who made the call after the FEC meeting, said most of the demands by labour have already been met, noting that there is therefore no need for them to go on protest.

He said government is baffled by the action as he affirmed that nothing has been done to truncate agreement with labour.

He said the issue of the CNG buses is not what can be satisfied immediately as “the CNG is not just what you get off the shelf.”

“Government has done nothing to truncate the agreement. We appeal to labor to see reason,” the minister pleaded.