Professor Abubakar Rasheed, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission has revealed how the Vice Chancellors of public universities are robbing these institutions blind and depriving students of their entitlements.
Abubakar disclosed this at a meeting bursars from 40 public universities in Abuja.
He said, “The EFCC is investigating so many universities as you are aware. One of the areas being investigated by the EFCC is the furniture allowance. Many universities fail to interpret what we mean by the furniture allowance. Common sense tells us that the government will never allocate N5.77m as furniture allowance to any VC.
“Yet, many bursars in many universities allow vice-chancellors to take N480,000 monthly as furniture allowance and you know it is wrong. This is why whenever the EFCC comes, there is crisis, and the VCs and the bursars are the easy targets. This interaction is to address these issues.”
“We decided to invite all of you, federal universities’ bursars. There are many areas where you have to put your heads together.”
Also the NUC chief disclosed that there were fresh applications for 240 private universities in the country.
He disclosed, “It may be of interest to you that the university system in Nigeria is growing. We have as of today 153 universities. We have federal, state and private universities.
“We have 68 private universities which is the highest of the three categories. And the number is growing because the NUC is currently processing over 240 applications for private universities in the country.