The Federal Government has passed a damning verdict on heads of tertiary institutions across the country, accusing them of operating their institutions like their personal fiefdoms.

This is even as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has vowed to scrutinize the activities of Vice-Chancellors more closely, accusing them of lacking accountability.

Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at the public presentation of 72 TETFund-sponsored published academic textbooks and additional 10 titles of academic textbooks secured by the Fund, Minister of Education,Dr Tunji Alausa, called on unions within tertiary institutions to play a more active role in ensuring accountability among the heads of their institutions.

Dr Alausa stressed that academic unions should not shy away from scrutinising the actions and decisions of Vice-Chancellors and other institutional leaders, urging them to demand transparency and responsible leadership in the management of universities and other higher institutions across the country.

He said: “The government is really not the problem….but you need to help us as a government, direct those searchlights to the heads of your institutions: the Vice-Chancellors, the Rectors and the Provosts.

“Several of them are running those institutions like an empire. We need your help in ensuring that fiducial responsibilities are met and they are held accountable. Every single money that we deploy to those institutions to be used the way they are meant to be used. We would work with you to ensure that that is done”.

Also speaking at the event, the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Chris Piwuna, pledged that the union would intensify its scrutiny of the activities of Vice-Chancellors across Nigerian universities.

He expressed concern that funds allocated to universities are often poorly managed at the institutional level, noting that ASUU would take a more proactive stance in monitoring how resources meant for the development of higher education are utilised.

Piwuna emphasised that greater transparency and accountability are necessary to ensure that funds intended for academic growth, infrastructure, and research are not misapplied or diverted.

His words: “I’ve argued with the Chairman of TETFund that sometimes you even give too much money to universities and they are not accounting properly for it. Yes, so you have plenty of money being given to universities. They have not utilized it, or they mismanage it, and they come back because as sure as the Northern Star they know next year, TETFund will give them another money”.

He also faulted TETFund for extending support to private universities, arguing that the intervention fund was primarily established to strengthen public tertiary institutions that are funded by government and cater to the majority of Nigerian students.

The ASUU President maintained that channeling resources meant for the development of public universities to private institutions could undermine the core mandate of the Fund, stressing that priority should be given to addressing the pressing infrastructural, research, and academic needs of federal and state-owned universities.

“Our churches that have universities and some other organizations, even members of the church cannot sponsor their children to those universities, and so TETFund cannot continue to subsidize people who have gone into business as private universities.

“If TETFund continues to support private institutions, we believe it will incentivize private individuals to continue to establish private universities”.

Checks on the website of the National Universities Commission (NUC) reveal that there are currently 309 universities in Nigeria, consisting of 74 federal, 67 states and 168 private universities.

This implies that the number of private Universities (168) outnumber that of federal and state universities combined (141). (The Guardian)