President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke has said most Nigerian universities are on the verge of shutting down over the unbearable cost of electricity.

Prof. Osodeke said this during the opening of a two-day national conference convened by ASUU in Abuja with the theme: ?Nigeria in a State of General Crisis: The Search for a New Path to Development,? on Thursday.

The ASUU president said while public universities receive N15m monthly from the federal government as running costs, the electricity bills of some universities run between N200m to N300m monthly.

Osodeke said the classification of electricity consumers into bands has increased the cost of most universities, adding that the rise in electricity cost was hampering the administration of most public universities in the country.

The university lecturer said this has forced some universities to channel their internally generated revenue to the running of their operation.

He said: ?We are so challenged. But let me give you a quick example, the University of Lagos; University of Ibadan; Ahmadu Bello University, and the University of Nigeria, Nsuka. What they get from the government account for the overhead running of the university in a month is N15million. Meanwhile, the University of Lagos needs about N200 million naira to pay the electricity bill. It is this IGR that you talk about that is used to pay for the electricity.

?One of the universities today is closing down because they have been given an electricity bill of N300 million. What the government gives you to run the system is N15 million, and you get a bill for electricity alone of N300 million. Where is that money coming from? You have to run the laboratories. You have to run the diesel. You have to run the fuel for vehicles.

?That is where the IGR is going today. Not being able to run the system, to buy books in the library, to run your library, to earn those things. They are all part of their so-called IGR, and that is what they talk about. But you know what? A government that will give just N15 million for UNILAG to run, will in turn, give one Senator N21 million a month. The government gives a system N15million, but an individual gets N21million. That?s where our priority is.

?For whatever reason, they have refused to fund the university systems as it was in the earlier part of our history.

?From the way we are going, if nothing is done, many universities will close up because they cannot afford the so-called Band A and Band B,? he added.

Lamenting the dire situation of some academics in the country, the ASUU President said farming has become even more lucrative for lecturers, especially when a professor is left at the mercy of earning less than N300, 000 per month and still has to cater for his family and publish journals.

Osodeke also criticised the proliferation of universities in the country, warning that they were merely running on skeletal manpower as most of the lecturing staff were out of the country searching for greener pastures.

He described the situation within the university system as very disturbing, stressing that most of their members are dropping dead.

ASUU also revealed how rigging is perpetrated by the political class, which warranted their members to stay away from electoral processes after the 2015 general elections.

According to Osodeke, academicians still presiding over elections are doing so in individual capacities, not as ASUU members.

He revealed that what the politicians do is bring figures from the polling units and give them to the presiding officers to announce.

He said rigging will be eliminated if members of ASUU are involved in the entire electoral process starting from the ward levels to local governments and the national collation of results.

Osodeke said: ?ASUU was asked to help conduct the (2015) election. That first election went well, though there were still issues. When the elections were over, we called for a meeting and put up a committee together to study what happened.

?By the time they finished, they came with a report that even though our colleagues are involved in the election, rigging is done at the polling booths and local government collation centres.

?What our colleagues do is just collate what they have been given. They give you a report, and you just write it down. So we found out that rigging is done there, and given to our members to collate.

?We went to INEC and asked that we participate from the polling unit up to the final stage and they refused. We wrote to them that ASUU, as a body, will not participate in any election.

?If you recall, before any election in this country, we will come out with a statement that we are not part of the election, but our members are Nigerians. They have their freedom, and they can go and do anything,? he insisted.

Acting Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Chris Maiyaki charged the university lecturers to come up with solutions to the challenges facing the country.

Maiyaki said the present challenges facing the country required a multi-stakeholder approach which members of the academia are capable of championing.

He said academics lead not only in ideas and academic theories but also in critical matters like crafts, politics and socio-cultural matters, religion, and morality.

Maiyaki said: ?Therefore is no class of persons more qualified than members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in the urgent task of searching for solutions to the current predicament of Nigeria and Nigerians. The challenges we face as a nation require rigorous analysis and the development of actionable solutions.

?I am absolutely confident that you have the intellectual resources, that your members are uniquely positioned to execute this charge in facilitating conversations about taking our nation to a more sustainable and more progressive future.?

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero said leaders in the country go abroad to receive medical treatment.

?When they (leaders) are coming back they come up with neoliberal policies and impose it on us. Today, Nigeria is running cap in hand to collect money from the International Monetary Fund. When you talk they place charges on my head ? terrorism financing, cybercrime, and others,? he said.

He accused the federal government of failing to fulfill all the agreements it entered with organized labour.

The NLC leader said the government has stopped the payment of the N35, 000 wage award since February and has also failed to fulfill its promise to make the refineries work.

Ajaero urged all the university-based unions to come together and declare a day of national action to force the government to reposition the education sector. (The Nation)

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