The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that most Nigerian universities are on the verge of shutting down over "unbearable cost of electricity", saying the electricity bills of some universities run between N200m to N300m monthly.
President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this on Thursday during the opening session of a two-day national conference convened by ASUU in Abuja with the theme: "Nigeria in a State of General Crisis: The Search for a New Path to Development."
Osodeke said, while public universities receive N15m monthly from the federal government as running costs, the classification of electricity consumers into bands has increased the cost of most universities.
The university don argued that the rise in electricity cost was hampering the administration of most public universities in the country, adding that this has forced some universities to channel their internally generated revenue to the running of their operation.
"We are so challenged. But let me give you a quick example, the University of Lagos; University of Ibadan; Ahmadu Bello University, and the University of Nigeria, Nsuka. What they get from the government account for the overhead running of the university in a month is N15million.
"Meanwhile, the University of Lagos needs about N200 million naira to pay the electricity bill. It is this IGR that you talk about that is used to pay for the electricity. One of the universities today is closing down because they have been given an electricity bill of N300 million.
"What the government gives you to run the system is N15 million, and you get a bill for electricity alone of N300 million. Where is that money coming from? You have to run the laboratories. You have to run the diesel. You have to run the fuel for vehicles.
"That is where the IGR is going today. Not being able to run the system, to buy books in the library, to run your library, to earn those things. They are all part of their so-called IGR, and that is what they talk about.
"But you know what? A government that will give just N15 million for UNILAG to run, will in turn, give one Senator N21 million a month. The government gives a system N15 million, but an individual gets N21 million. That's where our priority is.
"For whatever reason, they have refused to fund the university systems as it was in the earlier part of our history. From the way we are going, if nothing is done, many universities will close up because they can not afford the so-called Band A and Band B," Osodeke quipped.
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Lamenting the dire situation of some academics in the country, the ASUU President said farming has become even more lucrative for lecturers, especially when a professor is left at the mercy of earning less than N300,000 per month and still has to cater for his family and publish journals.
Osodeke also criticised the proliferation of universities in the country, warning that they were merely running on skeletal manpower as most of the lecturing staff were out of the country searching for greener pastures.
He described the situation within the university system as very disturbing, stressing that most of their members are dropping dead.
On his part, the President of NLC accused the federal government of failing to fulfill all the agreements it entered with organized labour.
The NLC leader said the government has stopped the payment of the N35,000 wage award since February and has also failed to fulfill its promise to make the refineries work.
Ajaero urged all the university-based unions to come together and declare a day of national action to force the government to reposition the education sector.
