The
House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education has assured all
the Federal Government owned Universities of adequate funding in the 2016
financial year as part of efforts to enable them meet their financial
obligations as well to improve the products of the nation’s
Universities.
Universities.
The
committee headed by Hon. Aminu Suleiman gave the assurance in Abuja at the weekend during
the budget defence exercise by vice-chancellors of Federal Universities.
The
committee chairman, who lamented the financial crisis facing the institutions,
declared that the National Assembly was very much aware of their financial
predicaments and would do everything to put an end to this ugly development
through adequate budgetary provision in the 2016 budget now before it.
For
his part, a member of the committee, Hon. E.J. Agbonayinma, demanded for a
special intervention in the case of the University of Benin which he said had
added two additional faculties this year and had its overhead cost
reduced from N12.78 billion in 2015 to N11.73billion in the 2016 budget
proposal with a shortfall of N829.40 million.
“I
am calling on my colleagues to look at the case of the University of Benin
dispassionately,in the current academic calendar year,the University has two
additional faculties, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, the only one in the
South-South geo-political zone of the country, and the Faculty of Environmental
Sciences with seven departments alone.
“Now,
how will the Institution survives now that its allocation had been
reduced from from N12.78billion in 2015 to N11.73billion in the 2016
budget proposal now with the National Assembly with a shortfall of N829.40
million,I think we have to look into this critical and dispassionately if we
don’t want system failure,” he said.
The
lawmaker enumerated the challenges facing the University to include Gully
erosion,Lecture/laboratory Rooms,Furniture,equipment and consumables,hostel
accommodation,fire fighting equipment and Trucks, security/surveillance
equipment,ICT infrastructure to meet local and international ratings,Academic
staff for accreditation(from Graduate Assistant to Professorial levels,Technicians
and technologists to derive research).
He
stated that if all these challenges were adequately addressed through budgetary
provision in the financial year,it would facilitate quality delivery and global
ranking of the University and others in similar predicaments.
The
committee however assured that it would look into all the presentations by the
various Universities and come up with adequate budgetary allocations to the all
the Institutions to enhance quality service delivery but warned the
university administrators against the mismanagement of funds being allocated to
them in whatever guise.
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