The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, through the National Universities Commission on Thursday ordered that all tertiary institutions across the country be shut between 22nd February and 14th March ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
This they said would afford the students the allowance to engage in their electoral rights, as they account for a major part of the electorates.
However, in reacting to this development, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, on Friday, has condemned the directive of the NUC, which was addressed to the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, staring that universities should be shut to enable students to participate in the forthcoming general elections.
The PUNCH reported that the National President, ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, explained that universities had never been shut down because of elections, saying that the closure and opening of universities were the prerogative of universities’ Senates.
He said, “Vice-Chancellors do not have the right to close universities. It is purely the prerogative of the universities’ Senates to either open or close universities.
“Things have gone so bad in this country that they are citing security and for this reason, we, as a union, had to look on. In all the past elections, have we ever closed the universities, polytechnics? So, what has gone wrong? Why the desperation? Why are they punishing Nigerians? We need to ask Nigerian leaders questions because we are trying to meet up with lost time and here you are shutting down universities.”
Also speaking, the National President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Mr Anderson Ezeibe, said the polytechnics regulatory body, National Board for Technical Education, had yet to come up with any directive.
He said, “We are waiting for our regulatory body but they have not made any pronouncement. For NUC, they cited security and they are in the best position to tell us the security information they have. But I still hold the view that the Senate of the universities are to take the decision of closure or no closure, not NUC.”
The President, National Association of Nigerian Students, Usman Barambu, said the directive by the NUC was welcome.
He said, “That directive is a product of our efforts. We met with the Minister of Education when the speculations were spreading that schools would be opened during the election period. The minister assured us that schools would not be opened and told us that directives would be issued to relevant agencies.
“It is not only universities that would be shut, polytechnic, Colleges of Education and all tertiary institutions of learning would not be opened. Very soon, you would begin to hear from them.”
