The House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Institutions and Services has said that many Federal Government-owned tertiary institutions have gone against the Federal Character law in the appointment of their senior staff.
Speaking to journalists at the end of their oversight function to Federal Polytechnic Offa in Kwara State, the Chairman of the Committee, Aminu Sulaiman, said about three of such institutions have been issued query for violating the law.
The committee also said that the House will examine and address factors responsible for industrial actions in the country’s tertiary institutions. It also stressed the need for Nigerian workers to learn and observe critically the issue of industrial relations of cooperation, contestation and confrontation.
The committee chairman noted that of all the institutions they have visited across the country, only three adhere to the Federal Character law. All the others were guilty of not following the provision of the law in recruiting their senior staffers.
“Federal character is grossly abused by some institutions and we have issued query to some institutions that are guilty of this, and warned others. This primordial perception and thinking has affected our national fabrics, and that is becoming a norm which is so unfortunate,” he said.
The chairman also said that the Federal Government is set to reposition technical education across the country, which makes polytechnics become darling of the Federal Government after agriculture.
On the disparity between HND and B.Sc holders, the committee chairman said, “We should remember that the dichotomy was backed by law and for us to change it, another law must be promulgated,” he said.
He explained that the present government has reaffirmed the same statement and sent it to the National Assembly, saying, it has passed through first and second readings.
On the essence of their visit, the chairman said “they are intended to establish the state of workings of institutions of higher learning to ascertain whether the appropriation to them are being utilised for the purposes for which they are meant.”
The lawmaker from Kano, however, said the amounts earmarked for education in the 2017 budget has not been fully implemented, pointing out that the lawmakers would scrutinise next year’s estimate.
