THE Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012 passed by the National Assembly recently to pacify the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and expected to be signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan, soon, is causing ripples and disaffection in the universities across the country.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may have called off its two-month old strike following, among others, the passage of the said Bill, for an act to further amend the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 to increase the retirement age for academic staff in the professorial cadre and non-academic staff and other matters connected therewith by the National Assembly but the bill has not entirely addressed the crisis in the ivory tower, particularly the federal universities. It rather appears set to open another round of controversy.
For example, Principal Officers like Registrars, Bursars and Librarians, are aggrieved that their length of service have been truncated by the new bill.
One of the demands of ASUU was the extension of the retirement age of academic staff from 65 years to 70. The draft bill, in subsection 3, states that, "as from the commencement of this Act, the compulsory retiring age of academics in the professorial cadre in the universities shall be 70 years. The law requiring a person to retire from the public service after serving 35 years shall not apply to academic staff of tertiary institutions.
While it is not in question that mentally and physically sound professors can still be productive and very beneficial to the system at 70 and beyond, there remains an incontrovertible fact that once some academics in Nigeria attain the exalted position of a professor, they relapse into declining productivity.
This remains the view of respected stakeholders in the Nigerian education sector like the legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola.
While some analysts are already condemning the lawmakers for succumbing to the pressure mounted by ASUU, arguing that millions of unemployed graduates are roaming the streets in search of jobs, the bill is causing disaffection between academic and non-academic staff in federal universities across the country.
Vanguard
The post has been updated.