The House Committee on University Education has urged the Federal Government to approve large-scale recruitment across Nigerian universities to ease the burden on overstretched lecturers and other staff. The appeal was made on Thursday in Abuja by the committee’s Chairman, Rep. Abubakar Fulata, who said many academics are leaving the country due to poor remuneration and excessive workload.
In a statement issued in Abuja, Rep. Fulata said universities are struggling to operate effectively because the remaining staff are carrying unsustainable workloads, a situation he warned could undermine the quality of education nationwide. He called for a significant upward review of salaries and allowances and for the government to grant universities permission to hire more academic and non-academic workers.
“I call on Mr. President to allow universities to embark on massive recruitment of workers to save our university system. Many have departed and the few available are overstretched,” he said. He added that “poor remuneration is one of the reasons for the exodus of academics from the institutions”.
Rep. Fulata also criticised what he described as undue interference by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the affairs of university governing councils. According to him, such interference disrupts the management of universities. “The council has power to engage and disengage any member of academic and non-academic staff, but MDAs frequently interfere with these powers,” he said.
He further appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to suspend its planned strike, saying it would worsen the sector’s challenges and disrupt the academic calendar. “This strike action will complicate the problems rather than solving them,” he said.
Rep. Fulata explained that the committee had conducted on-the-spot assessments across universities nationwide—including institutions in the South-East and South-South—and found that many of them face the same structural and staffing challenges. “The Committee on University Education and the 10th House of Representatives are determined to ensure improvement in the standard of education and stability of the academic calendar. We are not leaving any stone unturned to achieve this through collaboration with the Executive Arm and relevant stakeholders,” he said.
