Implementing the Needs Assessment Report for public universities

Now the nation has moved on to the most challenging aspect of the entire process, which is the stage of implementing the resolutions reached by all the parties involved. This is the time to bring to fruition all the months of research and hard work that went into the preparation of the Needs Assessment Report of […]

Now the nation has moved on to the most challenging aspect of the entire process, which is the stage of implementing the resolutions reached by all the parties involved.
 This is the time to bring to fruition all the months of research and hard work that went into the preparation of the Needs Assessment Report of the nation’s public universities. The report was initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan to revive the universities.
 The truth remains that the programme was meant to make Nigeria’s public universities globally competitive. The president has publicly committed himself to reviving the infrastructure and uplifting the academic standards of the public universities.
 Commentaries and editorials have been written about the ugly state of infrastructure in the public universities; political positions have been taken and general condemnations made; but this is the time to right the wrongs. This is time to improve on the neglected facilities that were abandoned by previous administrations. This is the time to give Nigeria the future she so rightly deserves.
On Tuesday, December 17, 2013, the federal government inaugurated the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) on the Needs Assessment Report of public universities. The IMC has members drawn from the federal government and key leaders of the unions in the federal universities with the Supervising Minister of Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, as chairman.
The committee has the responsibility of directly monitoring the implementation of projects being executed with allocated funds in all the public universities of the country spread across the six geo-political zones. The projects to be executed are based primarily on the lists of prioritized projects computed by the respective governing councils of the universities.
It is necessary to indicate that the IMC is not involved in the award of contracts, but principally set up to ensure that the best results are achieved over the period of six years that the Needs Assessment report of the public universities will be implemented. The objective is to ensure that the N1.3 trillion brings about the desired improvements that Nigerians yearn for.
Aside the IMC, there are two other committees established to handle specific functions in the course of the implementation of the report. They are; the Allocation Committee chaired by the Technical Consultant to the IMC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and the Logistics Committee chaired by the Director of Tertiary Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs Hindatu Abdullahi.
At this point, no Nigerian should stand aloof. The funds being injected in these public universities are from the nation’s commonwealth. Therefore, the task of monitoring the implementation of priority projects should not be left solely with the IMC. The media, civil society groups, parents’ teachers associations, members of the universities’ host communities and all stakeholders must take interest in what the university administrators do with these funds.
It is also imperative to point out that the ball has now left the court of the federal government and is in the court of the administrators of the respective public universities saddled with the mandate to implement the audacious Needs Assessment.
At one of the meetings between the Supervising Minister of Education and the vice chancellors and pro-chancellors, it was discovered that well over N300 billion meant for the development of infrastructure in the nation’s public universities were lying idle in banks due to certain challenges faced by the institutions. The university administrators must improve the capacity of officials in Physical Planning Units to ensure that they meet up the demands of the new reality.
 With effective implementation of the Needs Assessment report and the implementation of the regular TETfund development programmes, it is certain that the universities will return to their glorious days.
Nwakaudu, is Special Assistant (Media) to the Supervising Minister of Education.