Makinde assents to bill upgrading Emmanuel Alayande College of Education to varsity

• Says bill will increase access to quality education
• Don says FG not sincere over ASUU strike
 
Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, yesterday, assented to the bill seeking to upgrade Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo, to a University of Education.

He said that tertiary institutions in the state had moved from receiving 25 per cent subvention to getting 100 per cent.
 
“This is another landmark event in the history of tertiary education in Oyo State.
“Let me use this opportunity to thank the Oyo State House of Assembly for the speedy passage of the bill, and also for working together.”
 
In another development, the Vice Chancellor of Dominican University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Prof. Hyginus Ekwuazi, yesterday, said that the Federal Government had not been sincere about resolving the lingering strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
 
The vice chancellor, who spoke at media briefing ahead of the institution’s first and second convocation ceremonies scheduled for Saturday, December 10, 2022, blamed the protracted ASUU strike on the wrong approach and insincerity of the Federal Government.
 
“It is wrong for the government to insist it will not pay the lecturers because those lecturers would still come back to do the job. The implication of government’s decision is that if it refused to pay the lecturers for the period in question, it is the students that would suffer,” he said.
 
The professor of Film and Broadcasting said the work of lecturers is not what a government would say no-work-no-pay. I think the Federal Government must look for a way to resolve the crisis.
 
He added: “Lecturers produced the manpower in Nigeria’s human resources and therefore they cannot afford to be treated with contempt.
 
“Imagine also that facilities in public universities are abysmally poor and that is the condition under which these lecturers are working. I also want to sound this warning that if our government continues to pay lip service to the issue of ASUU strike, the implications is that what happened to public primary and secondary schools would happen to public universities where parents would not drift to private tertiary institutions.”
He also urged various arms of government to fund private universities.