Following the recent removal of public universities and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), vice chancellors and other principal officers of the institutions have been advised to make judicious use of the resources at disposal, deploy and manage same them effectively.
A former deputy vice chancellor (academic) of the Ekiti State University, (EKSU), Ado Ekiti, Professor Femi Olaofe who gave the advice described the exclusion of the public institutions from the IPPIS as “a highly welcome idea and development.”
The professor of Chemical Engineering/ Industrial Chemistry, however, while speaking to journalists in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, told management of public universities and other tertiary institutions to see the development as an opportunity to reinvigorate and transform the system.
He said,”This is the only way we can have an improved training in the tertiary institutions where manpower is produced for the nation. Now the Universities can down settle down and plan their academic works very well and improve on the quality of their products.
“Not that alone, even the university lecturers can do better researches than before by putting improved facilities in place, the workings of the system will be boosted with appropriate management of their financial resources and so on. We are now more or less back to the way they are running it.”
Olaofe also appealed to the federal government to give the universities 100 percent of what will pay their entire wage bills and adequate funds for the development of the institutions.
“But what I will appreciate more is that, subvention should cover the payment of salary, development of infrastructure and maintenance of same and all facilities in the Universities and let’s see how the Vice-Chancellors, the bursar and other principal officers are going to manage the financial resources of their Institutions.
“I will also want them to appeal to the management of these institutions to be highly focused and maintained their integrity by being accountable, manage the resources effectively and make a name for themselves by setting standards through the development of the system. This should be the aim of all the management and principal officers of the public universities in the country because no bible says good name is better than gold and silver.”
On what the administrators of the public universities should develop, he said, “They should work more on those things that will greatly Improve on the academic system, research works, students training , laboratory facilities, chemical, water, electricity. training of academic staff and putting every other required facilities and infrastructure in place”.
Professor Olaofe called on the government and industries in the to always consult the universities more for the researches rather than giving such things to outsiders.
The retired university teacher also warned against seeing the position of the vice chancellor of a university to be a political appointment, saying there are requirements and conditions to be met for anyone to qualify for the post.
“It is not a political appointment parsay as people will say but our system tend to make it so. There are basic qualifications requirements one must have before becoming a VC. You cannot have a first degree and become a VC but with first degree one can be appointed a Commissioner. Someone who is not a professor can’t become a VC of a university. With school leaving certificate one can even be governor.”
He identified infrastructural deficit as one of the major reasons responsible for inadequate accomodations for students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
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