Academy President Accuses Nuc Officials Of Collecting Brown Envelope

SAN FRANCISCO, March 01, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Academy of Science, NAS, has accused the National Universities Commission, NUC, particularly some of its officials involved in the conduct of accreditation in universities in the country, of collecting 'brown envelopes'.

NAS, which also accused the commission of allowing government's interference in carrying out accreditation of courses in universities, lamented that the NUC has derailed from its mandate as a regulatory body of university education to become a tool of the government.

President of the Academy, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, stated this recently while delivering a convocation lecture titled, “Building a New Generation University: Problems and Prospects”, at the University of Abuja.

While challenging the commission to engage only people with integrity in carrying out accreditation, he harped on the need for a change of attitude by academics in the country.

In Tomori's words, “In the recent past, the NUC has become a tool of the government, not a true commission for university education in Nigeria. Our NUC has gone along with the government without a whimper. When there are allegations that some of the people who conduct accreditation exercise in the name of the NUC receive brown envelopes, the NUC will ask: 'Are those who give or take the envelopes not your colleagues?'. But NUC forgets one thing, that the accreditation bears 'NUC's accreditation.'

“It is clear and glaring that many lecturers are hirelings, peddling their certificates to the numerous newly created staff-starved universities, and when universities hire lecturers for accreditation purposes, then you wonder what type of accreditation we are getting in our universities and what NUC is doing about it.”

The NAS President further lamented the use of an archaic benchmark by the commission in its accreditation operations, warning that Nigerian universities would continue to produce unemployable graduates if the trend was not reviewed.

He emphasized on the need to develop better curricula that will take the needs of society into consideration as well as ensure that Nigerian graduates are effective change agents.