COVID-19: CPCPU urges FG to reopen private universities to save economy from collapse

The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Private Universities (CPCPU) has appealed to the Federal Government to reopen the country’s 78 private universities which have been shut alongside other educational institutions in Nigeria since March 23 within the next one month to save the nation’s economy.
In the communiqué issued at the end of its Emergency Virtual meeting of July 25, the CPCPU disclosed that private universities are ready to reopen having put in place all the necessary requirements and protocols specified by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to ensure a safe and secure campus for both students and staff.
“We are prepared to open in phases, first with the graduating students, and probably with the first-year students”, the Communiqué read.
CPCPU affirmed that its members round the country had made sustained efforts to comply with the guidelines for the reopening as detailed in its template submitted through the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to the Federal Government.
The communiqué assigned by former Minister of Education and Pro-Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, (ABUAD) Professor Tunde Adeniran and made available to Tribune Online in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti capital on Tuesday by ABUAD’s Head of corporate affairs, Mr Tunde Olofintila, highlighted the contributions that private universities have continued to make in the manpower training and development in Nigeria.
Adeniran stressed that private universities remain fully committed to producing competent graduates in a timely manner through their ethical standards and settings, building credible leadership and followership for a better Nigeria.
According to him, “It is globally acknowledged that prompt solutions to economic, medical and scientific problems are best secured through the active participation of universities as knowledge workers through the performance of their teaching and research functions.
“ Further closure of our universities will amount to sounding a death knell to the continued viability of our institutions. In particular, the demise of private universities will increasingly become imminent and gravely undermine their role in assisting Government in the provision of jobs, education for the populace, and overall civil security, since private universities rely solely on student enrolment and fees which are only realizable if the universities are opened forthwith.
” Our Universities have also resolved to mobilise relevant resources in our universities across the country to undertake researches that address the challenges of the pandemic, for the wider benefit of the Nigerian populace and the world as a whole.
“We are pleased to have proactively and productively engaged with the complexities and complications arising from the pandemic in the last four months of closure. However, we have noticed with a heightened sense of trepidation that serious distortion and damage, in relation to academic calendar and resource base, await our institutions, should the closure of universities be prolonged beyond the next one month. Ultimately, the preparation of our students for a productive future may be compromised and this will not augur well for a country that is still grappling with employment challenges for its graduates.”
On the funding of private universities, the CPCPU agreed with the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of private universities, which recently requested the Central Bank of Nigeria, TETFUND to provide a special grant to cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic and another specific request submitted to the Central Bank of Nigeria for the dedicated fund as palliatives to private universities to facilitate their efforts in reopening their institutions.
On the avalanche of many unresolved issues public universities in Nigeria still have with the government, including the ongoing ASUU strike, the CPCPU said: “It is disconcerting that the public universities in Nigeria still have serious unresolved issues with Government while their large size constitutes additional challenges for them to re-open following the guidelines stipulated for re-opening.
“Our hope and expectation are that these matters should be resolved expeditiously. On the other hand, private universities are ready to reopen, having put in place all the necessary requirements and protocols specified by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, to ensure a safe and secure campus. We are prepared to open in phases, first with the graduating students, and probably with the first-year students,” the CPCPU said.