By Gloria Emmanuel, Abuja Federal Government Friday urged Governing Council members of Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education to stop localising the appointments of Vice-Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts of institutions in their domain.
Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike who gave the charge in a meeting with Governing Council members of public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education criticised the act saying that the government is dissatisfied with the re-occurring issues of appointment in its higher institutions.
According to him, “the Federal government is not comfortable with factors surrounding the appointment of Heads of Public higher institutions.
“Some council members indict federal government by saying that they have been summoned to the nation’s capital by the Minister using this as an excuse not to be part of the decision making process in their institutions.
“We have equally seen cases whereby some community leaders reject the candidate the Federal Government has chosen to Head a an institution due to their personal reasons as to where the Vice Chancellor or the Rector or the Provost is expected to come from.
“These appointments are not about zoning but I believe it is about efficiency”, Wike said.
The Minister also stated that the government has no interest in the appointment of Vice Chancellors, Rectors and Provost but only to ensure that due process is ensued.
He said “the federal government has no business in the appointment of these Heads but what is more important is the process”
The Minister noted that the Tertiary education sector had so far been confronted with several challenges which has caused a huge set back to the tertiary education system in the country.
In his words, “we have had enough problems in the sector and the Federal government is only trying to solve the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education” he stated.
He charged the council members to encourage merit.
On security issue, the Minister urged the Heads of the government institutions to be pro-active and be at alert at all times to be able to forestall any occurrences.
“This must be taken seriously since no one knows the plans of the evil doers, I will only encourage us to be at alert and take proactive measures at all times”
On the call to bridge the gap between the Polytechnic and the University, the Minister said that the strife among the lecturers of polytechnics and universities has made it difficult to solve the problems.
“The call to remove the dichotomy between the Polytechnic and the University is expected to encourage the lecturers upgrade to a certain cadre but it’s sad to note that it’s been made difficult due to lecturers strife”
Meanwhile, chairman of a governing council of a Public Polytechnic in (Northern Nigeria) who pleaded anonymity said that the meeting was actually and originally convened to discuss how to resolve the ongoing strike in the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
He said that the union leaders of both Institutions were waiting for the outcome of the meeting in order to announce the call off of the strike.
He expressed disappointment at the way the Federal government was tackling the challenge of the prolonged strike saying that the issue of dichotomy was still on.
