The newly appointed Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, assumed duties on Monday with the pledge to undertake a review of extant laws governing the Commission, which he described as obsolete, in order to strengthen and reposition it for better service delivery.
Ribadu stated this when he received handover notes from the Acting Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr Chris Maiyaki, on his assumption of duty following his appointment as the 9th substantive Executive Secretary of NUC by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He echoed earlier comments by the outgoing Acting Executive Secretary of NUC, Maiyaki, that the laws governing the Commission are outdated and have greatly impeded the effective operation of the Commission, especially in combating the proliferation of illegal degree mills in the country.
The new Executive Secretary insisted that as a regulatory body that oversees Nigeria’s citadels of learning, the Commission must look inward to determine the relevance or otherwise of its extant laws.
“We will thus revisit the laws that govern our Commission and its interactions with other stakeholders with a view to identifying areas of improvement in order to strengthen and reposition it for better service delivery.
“By focusing on these goals, I wish to recalibrate the core functions of the Commission while driving improvements in university education in Nigeria,” he said while reiterating optimism about the future of the National Universities Commission and the collective ability to effect positive change in the university education sector.
He lamented the challenge of lack of access to university education in the country, saying about 2 million candidates sit for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) annually, with only about 0.5 million admitted.
“We hope to increase access through expanding existing infrastructure and resources in public universities, e-learning, and distance education, as well as private provisioning,” he stated.
Ribadu noted that he had worked in the Commission as a Sabbatical and Visiting Professor at various times and is aware of the enormity of the responsibility that rests on his shoulders, expressing his readiness to work assiduously to ensure that NUC continues to play its vital role in shaping the present and future of the Nigerian University System (NUS).
He promised to prioritise training and the welfare of staff, disclosing that in the coming weeks and months, he would be working closely with the management team to develop a comprehensive strategy for the Commission.
The NUC boss highlighted other key areas of focus of his administration to include ensuring stability in the academic calendar, enhancing funding and external support channels, driving digitisation, and strengthening quality assurance.
Earlier, the outgoing Executive Secretary of NUC, Mr. Maiyaki, in his remarks, said the laws governing the Commission are obsolete and have posed great challenges to its smooth operation.
He called for legal reform to strengthen the Commission and function effectively as the regulatory agency in charge of university education in Nigeria.
He revealed that in the last 18 months of steering the affairs of NUC, so much has been achieved, including licensing new universities to bring the number of universities in Nigeria to 276.
Maiyaki added that over 1,000 graduate and postgraduate programmes have been approved while the new Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) developed by his predecessor, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, was activated and is now being implemented in universities in Nigeria.
