The Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and the Committee of Prof-Chancellors have called on the Federal Government to ensure safety of lives and properties in institutions of higher learning.

The Secretary-General of the committees, Prof. Michael Faborode, told our correspondent on Thursday in Abuja that the worsening situation in several campuses was a source of concern.

Faborode said that during the recent meeting in Abuja, the committees also condmned the killing of students of Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa and the murder of four students of the University of Port Harcourt, in Rivers.

“This recent development has become very worrisome and we are talking of students of higher institutions of learning, we know the enormous investments on students in higher institutions.

“So, for such lives to be wasted just like that bothers the Committee of Chancellors and the Pro-Chancellors seriously because no human being should be subjected to such a depraved treatment.

“Both the committees are calling on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to protect lives and property in all our campuses of institutions of higher learning.’’

“If nothing is done, service delivery in the institutions will be affected.

“If students refuse to go to classes and if lecturers refuse to go and teach just because their lives are not safe, then we are saying bye-bye to quality education in the country.’’

He said that the situation could have a ripple effect on many aspects of national development.

Faborode expressed the hope that the Federal Government would take decisive steps to reassure staff and students in higher institutions of their safety.

He said that the chancellors and pro-chancellors also expressed serious concern about what they described as arbitrary taxation imposed on institutions by some state governments.

The secretary-general said that a number of universities in Nigeria were having serious problems with taxation in their domains as some states were imposing enormous tax on the university community to get Internally Generated Revenue.

According to him, the development “ has started to create a lot of tension between the universities and the governments of their respective states; staff unions are becoming restless.’’

Faborode called on the Governors’ Forum to look at the issue very seriously in order to forestall looming crisis in the university system.

“There is need for the governors to look at the issue and come up with proper taxation regime and not to impose arbitrary taxation regimes that will create problems for the national university system.’’