The Vice Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba (AAUA), Akoko, Professor Igbekele Ajibefun on Friday, charged the federal government to reconsider its funding of educational system in Nigeria with 15 percent budgetary allocation.
The VC declared that for Nigerian university system to rank better among its peers in the world which are going technological, federal government must jack up funding of the educational institutions across the country.
Ajibefun gave the charge while speaking with journalists on Friday in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital shortly after declaring ooened, the first matriculation programme of the university for its Abeokuta capus.
A total number of 85 students drawn from across the nine accredited courses of the Abeokuta campus however, matriculated during the programme which also had in attendance, members of the academic unit of AAUA from the mother campus in Akungba, Ondo state.
Emphasising that Nigeria's educational sector at present is grossly underfunded, the VC explained that it is appropriate for the federal government to ensure that right percentage is allocated to education in the budget, stressing that no university can survive without adequate funding.
"Recently, the federal government is saying that all states in Nigeria should earmark 15 per cent of their budgets to education, but we are saying that 15 per cent is not enough. For a state that has three higher institutions, that 15 per cent cannot cater for them".
"Considering that all universities around the world are going technological, to have the right infrastructure and technology that will be used in such universities; to have a state-of-the-art universities that will compete favourably with their peers around the world, we need to spend heavily on education".
Ajibefun, who was represented at the matriculation programme by the university's Librarian, Dr. Rotimi Adesina Egunjobi however, disagree with claims in some quarters that Nigerian university graduates are unemployable.
The VC explained that curricular in Nigerian universities have been so modified towards ensuring that graduates are bequeathed with the right skills that will make them self-reliant rather than started looking for the non-existing white collar jobs.
"As a matter of fact, all universities today offer entrepreneurship courses for our undergraduates and we believe that we are setting them on the right motion to be able to live independently when they leave schools".
In his own comment, Provost of the Abeokuta campus of the university, Professor David Bamgbose lamented the regime of multiple taxation under which the campus have been subjected to by the Ogun state government within the short period of its existence.
"Let me say that apart from the fact that there are multiple taxes, the way government go about appropriating these taxes is gruesome. For a university such as these that is contributing to the development of human resources, government supposed to support such initiative and not inflict it with a policy that will kill it".
Bamgbose, who also doubles as the Provost of Yewa Central College of Education however, appealed to the Ibikunle Amosun led administration in the state to give its revenue drive a "human face" in order not to discourage other investors who are willing to establish businesses in the state.
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