Aside poor welfare and facilities, universities in Nigeria are highly understaffed according to the chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), university of Port Harcourt chapter, Dr Andrew Efemini.

Dr Efemini who made the assertion weekend, while speaking in a phone-in radio programme organised by Silverbird Communications in Port Harcourt also said the private universities are not better than public universities as widely believed.

The Uniport ASUU chairman stressed that the major bane of universities in the country was that they are grossly understaffed coupled with poor funding and political interference.

He argued that the people should not misconstrue the current ASUU strike as only concerning lecturers welfare but to ensure that the best practices obtainable in tertiary institutions across the world are also implemented in the country.

Dr Efemini argured that the core demands of ASUU need to be documented and implemented before the lecturers would return back to the classroom, since the union at several occasions had been decried by government pronouncements.

Stressing the need for better quality manpower in the universities, the ASUU chairman said quality education is hinged on quality personnel, adding,” our challenge is that the leaders don’t appreciate what education is, if not how can a Senator earn in one month what a professor earns in one year”.

Currently, he said the total manpower of teaching staff in federal universities is put at 14,000.

Proferring the way out of the present stalemate between ASUU and Federal Government, Dr Efemini said there was need for a fresh renegotiation and total implementation of agreement “ we want the universities to be independent from political influences. There should be almost zero politics in the universities’, he remarked.

He ruled out the possibility of ASUU going to court saying the present matter is not legal one but one that could be resolved on the roundtable.

Similarly chairman of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, University of Port Harcourt chapter, Comrade Ebele Joe has critised the federal government for being responsible for the decay in the system.

Comrade Joe asserted that on several occasions the government despite warning strikes has remained adamant in addressing the plight of university workers.

He maintained that it is only when workers are pushed to the wall that they resort to strike, stating that the union cannot be blackmailed by the government until its demands are met.

Prof Howells Hart, board member, Rivers State Bureau on Public Procurement (left) chatting with co-member, Hon Christian Mba, during a two-day seminar for staff of the Bureau in Port Harcourt, recently. Photo: Chris Monyanaga.