The Academic Staff Union of Universities has faulted the Federal Government’s approval of new private universities despite its recent announcement of a seven-year moratorium on establishing new tertiary institutions.

ASUU, in a statement signed by its President, Christopher Piwuna, on Thursday, questioned the rationale for the move, saying access to university education in Nigeria was no longer a challenge.

He said, “ASUU also watched in awe as the Federal Government announced the seven-year moratorium; they proceeded to announce the establishment of nine new private universities.

“If we agree that access is no longer an issue, why is the NUC giving more licences to private universities?

“While ASUU acknowledges the rights of private individuals to establish universities, education must be tightly controlled to ensure quality.”

The union lamented what it described as the “scandalous proliferation” of universities, accusing past and present administrations of using licences as political patronage.

The statement added, “The government must therefore promote quality education and shun profiteering in the education sector.

“We have 72 federal and 108 state universities, and 159 private universities, bringing it to a total of 339 universities, giving each state and the FCT an average of nine universities, excluding polytechnics and colleges of education.

“So why not place a moratorium on both public and private? Past and present administration must cover their faces in shame for this scandalous proliferation of universities.

“Failure to do this will continue to erase our universities from world rankings.

“University administrations and the regulatory agency must equally share in the blame for the wrong staff mix highlighted in the minister’s pronouncement.”

While commending the government for eventually adopting its call for a moratorium, ASUU warned that creating more private institutions would worsen poor staffing, erase Nigerian universities from global rankings, and devalue degrees.

“For more than 10 years, our union has cried aloud about the harmful effects of establishing mushroom universities that the government has no plans to develop.

“In total disregard for time-tested planning and ideas that hitherto went into establishing universities, we have watched universities turn into compensation for political patronage.

“So, ASUU was not surprised when the Minister of Education stated that over 30 universities had zero subscriptions for admission.

“We have drawn the attention of the authorities to the fact that spreading scarce resources over a large surface area was meaningless and wasteful,” the union stated.

The Federal Executive Council had on August 13 approved the suspension of new federal tertiary institutions for seven years to strengthen existing ones.

Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, had argued that many universities were operating below capacity, with some northern institutions having fewer than 1,000 students.

“Several federal universities operate far below capacity, with some having fewer than 2,000 students.

“In one northern university, there are 1,200 staff serving fewer than 800 students. This is a waste of government resources,” he stated.

Meanwhile, ASUU reiterated its demand for the government to address lingering issues affecting public universities and academics, including the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, revitalisation funds, outstanding salary arrears, and promotion backlogs. (PUNCH)