THE Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) has announced the recommendation of nine more private universities for accreditation in Nigeria.

The approval will therefore increase the number of universities in the country from its present 129 to 138.

The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, who disclosed this yesterday at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, that the commission had forwarded the names of the prospective universities mainly in the South-West geo-political zone to the Minister of Education for consideration.
According to him, government was pleased with the contributions of private sector to the development of the nation’s tertiary education.

He said: “We are making recommendation for nine universities through the Minister of Education to the President. What it also means is that we are trying to encourage private sector participation in tertiary education delivery.

“I must also say that only about a week ago, I decided to take the tour of universities that were recommended. You will be sure that what we are going to have is an improvement of what we already have. For those of us who are very familiar with the creation of private universities, we started in an era where you could have a licence even though you have no structure at all to the era of saying you must have a take-off site after which we advise you to move to permanent site.

“But we are now in the new era not only where you have a take-off site, but you must show evidence of serious activities at the permanent site. What I saw in my trip within one week in Hallmark, Ijebu-Itele, I was in Augustine University in Epe, I was in Christopher in Mowe, I was in Kings near Osogbo and so on.

“I haven’t visited Mike Ibru University in the South-East. I must do that before it is approved. I tell you that what I saw were signs that the private sector are very interested in providing facilities in improving tertiary education delivery.”

Meanwhile, the commission has expressed worry over the spate of award of professorship title in the country.

Okojie, who stated that the practice was creating rooms for quacks, informed that a fake professor was apprehended recently by the commission.

He stated: “Only recently, by some strokes of luck, we were able to identify a fake professor that appeared before a standing committee of private universities for the purpose of accessing their request for establishment of a private university. It is now history. I think very soon, if they have not been charged to court, I think they will appear in court very soon.

“What was even more revealing in that is that the three principal actors, the chief consultant who was supposed to be professor and the proprietor who was supposed to be a Ph.D. holder and their lawyer were all fake.”

According to him, the professor was working for an unsuspecting university in the country which paid him N300, 000 monthly salary.

Besides, Okojie said the commission was set to scrutinise all members of staff that joined the commission in the last 10 years, and that they would be mandated to produce all their academic credentials. “If you are a regulator, you must live above board,” he said.
While speaking on simultaneous appointments taken by lecturers in tertiary institutions in the country, the NUC boss said: “We want to do a member of staff and student audit. We have done that before.

We want to take the biometric of members of staff. If it shows up in two places, we have done that before. We allow for a lecturer to have a full appointment in one university and also teach in any other department for another university.

There is a minimum workload of a lecturer. When he has not met the number of hours, then, he can go and teach in that department outside, with permission from the Vice Chancellor. If it is in the same university, the Senate must approve.”