The National Welfare Officer of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Stella-Maris Okey has lamented that the poor state of infrastructure across Nigerian universities had defeated the philosophy of education in Nigeria which was meant to be qualitative, comprehensive, functional and relevant to the needs of the society.
She said this while presenting a paper titled “Poor infrastructure in Universities: A validation of ASUU struggles” during a virtual workshop organised by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Federal University of Technology, Minna branch, where she also said that lack of infrastructure had hampered the ability of universities to train graduates to meet the demands of the Nigerian society and the world at large.
“History has it that Nigeria was a country that produced world-class higher education graduates that competed with their counterparts around the world. Hard work was their watchword. But today the story is different. That is why it is history,” the doyenne of Educational Management enthused.
Okey praised ASUU for being at the forefront of demanding proper funding and revitalization of public universities, especially in terms of providing adequate infrastructure to aid effective academic exercise.
She noted that funding was the heart of education since it touches on various aspects of planning, facilities, equipment and recruitment of competent teachers.