FG denies plans to hand over public varsities to private investors

The Federal Government has said there was no plan to hand over government-owned tertiary institutions, particularly the universities, to private investors.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, made the clarification at the second quarterly engagement of the ministry with the heads of units and chief executive officers of parastatals and agencies under the ministry.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), had accused the Federal Government of plans to hand over the federal universities to investors through public private partnership.

“There is no plan to sell off universities to investors,” he said,  noting that the policy of the government allowed for transnational education.

According to him, transnational education is a policy on what this government is doing to open up tertiary education by taking people from the rest of the world to come and invest in the tertiary system. “Some people are carrying information that the Federal Government is selling off to private investors its universities. This is an absolute lie and completely false.

“This government believes in our public institutions. However, as we all know, this government has reforms that the country needs.

“The private sector will play a major role in the provision of tertiary education as there are more private universities in Nigeria than public universities combined.

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“What this government has done is to open up the tertiary education level, in particular, the universities for global competitiveness.”

The minister stressed the need to allow those who operate universities at the international level to come into the country and set up institutions either for themselves or in collaboration with our local universities. He said this was in no way to sell its institutions, noting that guidelines on transnational education had been in place.

Mamman said the country must take a cue from what is obtainable in the other climes, so as to benefit from the advantage of transnational education.

“In other parts of the world, like Asia, they have benefited immensely from having international institutions in those countries.

“They have taken standards to those countries and also for the exchange and bringing money to those countries,” he said.

He further said engagement with the heads of agencies as parastatals was to review the progress, challenges, and reaffirm the commitment towards the educational landscape of the country.

Minister of State for Education, Dr. Tanko Sununu, in his submissions, noted the importance of the quarterly review meeting, adding that education must be earned by character, knowledge, and skills.

“We must champion a campaign that would produce graduates that would survive and fit into the 2024 century. This is also the direction of the African Union as the year is declared a year of education so that we can have an education that can guarantee experiences in lifelong learning for Nigerians to take its rightful place in the comity of nations.”

FG denies plans to hand over public varsities to private investors