Sen. Gyang Dantong, Chairman, Senate Committee on Health on Sunday criticised Nigerian universities, declaring that the ivory towers “are not contributing to nation growth.
“Worldwide, universities undertake researches into peculiar problems of their nations and recommend solutions to move them forward.
“In countries with recurrent problems, university professors put heads together periodically and suggest ways to tackle such problems be they political, economic or in any other sphere of human endeavour.
“But the situation is different here. The university lecturers do not make such sacrifice. All you hear about them are strikes over money, money, money,’’ Dantong fumed in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos on Sunday.
Dantong, a medical doctor, was speaking on the incessant strikes by the lecturers, who are currently on another round of industrial action over grouses that border on welfare, alleged poor funding of the universities and government’s unmet financial promises.
The lecturers are also asking for a review of their retirement age to 70.
But the senator, who represents Plateau North, said that the lecturers should be worried more about the plight of the students and the low quality of their products, especially since the lecturers enjoyed quality education during their time.
“Nigeria has a myriad of problems; part of the functions of the university system is to proffer solutions to them since it is the citadel of knowledge. There are security issues as well other issues that border on unemployment, oil management and youth restiveness.
“We expect the university to be part of the efforts toward solutions because when you say that it is the citadel of knowledge, it means it has brains that continually work toward finding solutions to the problems.
“From our records in the Senate, the average Nigerian lecturer is paid well, but they are always comparing their salaries with that of political office holders. They look for one complaint or the other to shirk off their responsibilities.
“All Nigerians are always challenged to make sacrifices for national growth but lecturers do not believe they should make any sacrifice. This is bad.’’
He also rejected the lecturers’ insistence that professors should be in classrooms till they are 70.
“At the younger ages, when they should contribute to national growth, they stay at home on strikes. Of what use will they be when they are old?.’’
Dantong challenged lecturers to reconsider their constant resort to strike, stressing that their action was turning the youths into “a mass harvest of illiterates that will eventually be masked as graduates’’.
“The indolence among the youths contributes massively to the social unrest in Nigeria. It breeds a lot of frustrations and the students are just victims of situations they cannot just control,’’ he stated.