Nine new federal varsities yet to get governing councils – Shekarau says

The nine new universities established by the Federal Government in 2011 across the country are yet to get their governing councils, Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, has said.
Shekarau spoke on Monday during an impact assessment tour of the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, one of the new universities.
The others are Dutse, Dutsin-Ma, Kashere, Lafia, Lokoja, Ndufu-Alike-Ikwo, Oye-Ekiti and Wukari.
Shekarau, however, assured that the universities would soon get their governing councils in place to enable their managements move the institutions forward.
He also expressed optimism that in spite of the threats by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), it will not embark on any industrial action soon.
The university teachers have been threatening an indefinite strike over what they termed non-implementation of agreement reached between ASUU and the Federal Government.

But Shekarau stated that there was no industrial conflict between the Federal Government and ASUU that could warrant another round of strike, pointing out, however, that the only minor problem between the two parties was information gap.
“We will continue to apply more and more dialogue to bridge the communication gap between the Federal Government and ASUU to ensure that there is peace”, he said.
Shekarau explained that the issue of funding, which had been a major bone of contention between the union and the government, had been resolved.
“I am sure that any ASUU member that sees what is going on in the tertiary institutions will be surprised. I tell you, some of the institutions, their money is waiting for them and allocations are being made in the last couple of weeks.
“They are just waiting for due process to be followed for them to access the funds. So, it is not the problem of need, the need has to be accessed. Government is providing the funds and we are releasing the funds gradually.
“ASUU is part of the implementation committee. So ASUU is following the picture of what is going on and I am sure with that, the days of strike will be over”, he added.