Dear Sir: Recall that the Committeeof Needs Assessment of Nigerian (Public) Universities, CNANU, was set up by Government as a result of the dispute between Government and ASUU in respect of the funding requirements needed to arrest the rot and reverse the decay in the Nigerian University System. Recall also that the Committee submitted its report to Federal Executive Council, FEC and National Economic Council, NEC and a Technical Committee was set up by NEC to draw up the action-plan to guide government in implementing the recommendations of the Report. Recall also that the Technical Committee had submitted its report to NEC, which was approved and sent to FEC. Recall also that FEC had approved the report and the President had also approved the memo sent to him in respect of the Report of the Technical Committee.
For our Union, the setting up of a committee to implement the recommendations is a very welcome development. We are however alarmed by recent developments in the work of the Committee. We therefore wish to make the following observations with regards to the workings of the Committee. We find it necessary to make the observations in order to stop the Committee from derailing from its core mandate and creating even deeper crises in the University System.
ESTABLISHMENT OF OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY
1.We are worried that the Committee is yet to start working on the Technical Report of the NEC Committee that was approved by the NEC and FEC. We believe that the approved report together with the Main Report and the Individual University Report should form the basis of what the Committee will be doing.
2. We are concerned that the Committee, four weeks after its inauguration, is yet to come up with a roadmap for implementation of the CNANU Report. We are worried that there is no plan on the ground on what to do with the other numerous recommendations besides the ones that the Committee had chosen to commence with.
3. While we believe that the committee must start from somewhere, a general plan of action is necessary for the successof the committee.