The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, yesterday, raised the alarm that most departments and units in Nigeria’s public universities are short-staffed, due to the resignation of lecturers in search of greener pastures.
The union said poor and delayed salaries, unpaid allowances, poor infrastructure and lack of respect for the academic community are responsible for the resignation of lecturers in the past few months.
The Chairman of ASUU, University of Ibadan Chapter, Professor Ayo Akinwole, in a chat with newsmen, lamented that public universities are in pitiable conditions with stress and frustration visible in the faces of lecturers.
Akinwole said: “Vice Chancellors cannot single-handedly employ to replace staff as urgent as it is needed again. They have to contact Abuja for approval, which may take six months to a year, if not more, before they get approval. By this time, the best candidate has gone to a more serious country that respects quality. Sadly, people from the Ministry of Education to legislators themselves want to dictate who the universities should employ.”
