The House of Representatives Committee on University Education has urged the Federal Government to approve a mass recruitment of lecturers and non-academic staff to address the worsening manpower shortage in Nigerian universities.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Abubakar Hassan Fulata, made the call in a statement on Thursday, warning that the existing workforce is overstretched and unable to meet the rising demands of the tertiary education system.
Fulata attributed the acute shortage of academic staff to the increasing rate of brain drain, noting that poor remuneration was a major factor driving lecturers out of the country.
“I call on Mr President to allow universities to embark on massive recruitment of workers to save our university system. Many have departed and the few available are overstretched,” he said.
The lawmaker also called on the Federal Government to urgently review salaries and allowances across the university sector, arguing that better welfare packages were necessary to stem the tide of resignations and international migration.
Fulata further cautioned ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) against what he described as undue interference in the functions of university governing councils. He said such interventions undermine institutional autonomy and disrupt the smooth running of tertiary institutions.
“Governing councils are empowered to hire or disengage staff, but these powers are frequently undermined by external interference,” he said.
He equally appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to suspend its threat of strike, stressing that another disruption of the academic calendar would worsen existing challenges in the sector.
“I appeal to ASUU to give the government enough time to address these issues instead of frequent threats of strike action. Another strike will complicate the problems rather than solve them,” he cautioned.
The chairman disclosed that the committee had recently conducted an on-the-spot assessment of federal and state universities across the country, giving members firsthand knowledge of the infrastructural and manpower gaps confronting the institutions.
