Mimiko; and the Executive Secretary of
the National Universities Commission,
Prof, Julius Okojie, have charged Vice
Chancellors of Nigerian universities to
work to put an end to the regime of
strikes by university lecturers in the
country.
Mimiko and Okogie spoke at the
opening of the 28th Conference of the
Association of Vice Chancellors of
Nigerian Universities on Tuesday in
Akure, the Ondo State capital.
At the conference, stakeholders were
united in their conclusion that all were
losers in every given strike action
embarked upon by members of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The conference, hosted by the Federal
University of Technology, Akure, drew
participants from the 129 public and
private universities in Nigeria and other
organisations, including the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and
the National University Commission.
Mimiko, while declaring the conference
open, said the state of university
education in the country had been
further worsened by the four-month-old
ASUU strike.
The governor said it was time for a re-
orientation of the university lecturers to
start appreciating the fact that teaching
is both a profession and a vocation.
He said, "Therefore, teaching should be
engaged in only by those with a special
call, who want to impart knowledge to
others on the sole grounds that they are
happy doing so and because they
believe that they have a special interest
or ability to do so.
"A university teacher should be seen as
one who is developing his students to
become future leaders through quality
education and high moral character."
Mimiko noted that the Nigerian
universities deserved improved funding
in spite of the overriding challenges of
the various sectors of our polity.
He said that since there was a huge
difference between the resources
available to the proprietors of state and
federal universities, it was not just to
subject the workers on the two
platforms to the same reward system.
Okojie, who was represented by the
visiting professor of the NUC, Prof Sola
Akinrinade, said that the Nigerian
University System was facing a major
operational break due to the ongoing
industrial action by members of ASUU.
"The impact of strike actions is
significant and they affect not only
students who are our primary product
but staff as well," he said.
He appealed to Vice Chancellors to work
to ensure that disagreements between
the Federal Government and ASUU
were settled as early as possible before
they resulted into total breakdown in
the public university system.
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