’12 new varsities increasing disunity in Nigeria’

Peterside made the statement as one of the panelists invited by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG) to review the mid-term report on the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan-led government in education. He said government’s decision to set up these new universities to reflect federalism when existing ones were in “a comatose state” had […]

Peterside made the statement as one of the panelists invited by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG) to review the mid-term report on the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan-led government in education. He said government’s decision to set up these new universities to reflect federalism when existing ones were in “a comatose state” had politicised the Nigerian university system especially with appointments of vice-chancellors and admission of students.
Peterside said locating a federal university in every state including the FCT was threatening the role of the university as “a force for national unity and integration and centre of excellence.”
President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Dr. Nasir Faggae also a panelist at the event said the establishment of the new universities was “an agenda to ensure there is disunity in this country.”
Faggae who compared the action to rejected moves by the Obasanjo administration to privatise federal government colleges said it would be a disservice to the nation in the future.