Lecturers and non-teaching staff at six public universities in Kenya, defied a court order and held demonstrations to demand full salary and remittance of statutory deductions.

The marches could disrupt learning and other activities even as First Year students started reporting last week.

Continuing students have also begun reporting for the new academic year.

The workers accuse university managers of underpaying them and failing to comply with a January 15 court order.

Lecturers and non-teaching staff at Multimedia University (MMU) and Technical University of Kenya (TUK) held demonstrations at their institutions.

MMU was shut indefinitely Wednesday with the Institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Festus Kaberia, directing students to vacate the university premises by 6pm.

In a notice, Kaberia said Staff went on strike from September 13, paralysing learning and general operations of the university.

The VC added that the strike led to demonstrations by students, who attempted to block traffic on Magadi Road.

University Academic Staff Union (UASU) MMU Chapter Secretary Onesmus Maluki Mutio, who is also the national organising secretary, said workers have not been getting the pay they were awarded in the collective bargaining agreement.

Local media learnt that staff from other universities are also planning similar demonstrations while others are in talks with management.

In the meantime, UASU Secretary-General, Constantine Wasonga has defended the picketing and denied reports that the workers defied a directive stopping the nationwide strike that was to take place last month.

He added that universities have not been remitting workers’ deductions to medical insurance firms, saccos, the Kenya Revenue Authority, NHIF, NSSF, loans, pension and others.

Dr Wasonga said universities have not implemented the 2017-21 pay deal.

Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) Organising Secretary, Ernest Wayaya, however says the workers would resume duty only after getting all their dues.

Data published by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, shows that for the fifth year running, the University of Ilorin ranked as Nigeria’s most preferred university by admission seekers in the country.

The examination board says this year, the university had 78,466, which is about 6 per cent of 2021 admission seekers, jostling for admission into it.

The continuous preference of the university may not be unconnected to the school’s relatively stable academic calendar over the years as the school’s staff did not embark on strike for years unlike other public Nigerian universities.

That streak may however be on the line now as last March, after about two decades, UNILORIN academic staff joined their colleagues in the Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) in an industrial action that lasted months.

Admission record released by JAMB from last year, showed that as of August, only 19 per cent (13,634, the highest number of admission by any institution in the country in 2020) of applicants to UNILORIN had gained admission.

Meanwhile, with 59,190 applicants, University of Lagos recorded the second highest admission request this year. This is a move by one place from third in last year’s admission request, even though this year, fewer number of students sought admission from the school.

The 2020 admission record showed that UNILAG admitted 7,815, some 17 per cent of its admission seekers, as of August.

The University of Benin, with 49,763, placed third with 49,361 admission seekers. Save 2020, this means UNIBEN has maintained third place since 2017.

As of August, from last year, about a quarter of its admission seekers had been offered admission.

The University of Nigeria Nsukka, had 47,239 applicants last year. While Federal University, Oye-Ekiti recorded 45,920 applicants, the first time it would record such demand and the first time it would break into the top ten most sought-after universities in four years. The university was established in 2011.

Ahmadu Bello University slipped from second place, for the first time in four years, with 44,509 applicants, about half of the admission seekers last year.

Bayero University had 44,352 applicants; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, 43,542; Obafemi Awolowo University, 42,614; and for the fifth year running, the University of Jos placed tenth most preferred university in the country with 38,309 applicants.

The data released by JAMB showed that 2,110,815 students (including 171,660 direct entry (DE) students) applied for tertiary education into 962 institutions in 2020.

Of them, 1,112,057 had five O’level credits (including mathematics and English) and, for non-DE students, scored 140+ in the UTME.

As of August, 551,553 of the students had gained admission, which is nearly half of those with the least prerequisite for a tertiary institution admission. The figure also represents 26 per cent, or about three in ten, JAMB admission rate.

JAMB’s data also showed that in 2019, about two-thirds of the about two million admission seekers were not admitted.

Most preferred Colleges of Education

With 2,318, Kaduna State College of Education had the most applicants seeking entry into it.

Breaking out of first place for the first time in four years, Federal College of Education, Zaria, had 2,213 applicants. The Federal College of Education, Kano had 1,037 applicants.

The College of Education, Waka-Biu, broke into the top ten most-coveted colleges of education with 915.

The Federal College of Education (Tech.), Gombe had 797 applicants; the College of Education, Akwanga, 685; Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kano State, 649; the FCT College of Education, 598; the Federal College of Education (Tech.), Potiskum, 522; the Federal College of Education, Katsina, 498.

Most preferred Polytechnics and Monotechnics

The Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna, recorded 3,277 applicants, while Kwara State Polytechnic had 3,237.

Likewise, the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, had 3,140; Yaba College Of Technology, 2,794; the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, 2,628.

For the first time in four years, four institutions broke into the top ten most preferred polytechnics this year.

They include Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, which had 1,695 applicants; the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, 1,662; School of Nursing and Midwifery, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, 1,271; the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, 1,213.

Placing ninth with 1,250 applicants, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, completes the top ten ranked polytechnics most preferred by the nation’s admission seekers.

A fresh crisis is brewing at the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) as the institution’s governing council is at loggerheads with the management over budgetary matters.

At the heart of the new crisis is the allegation by the council that the budgetary allocations for the current year were made and submitted to the budget office of the federation without reference to the council.

The governing council, headed by a former executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, Ahmed Modibbo, is accusing the AbdulRasheed Na’Allah-led management of undermining its authority.

The council, last week, directed Na’Allah, former two-term vice-chancellor of Kwara State University, to query the institution’s bursar, Rufai Baba, and the director of the physical development department, Sadiq Shuaibu.

However Modibbo who is a professor of history, says there is no conflict in the university when contacted by journalists on the matter. He said the governing council only challenged an attempt to undermine its power and statutory role.

The university’s new governing council was appointed in July but since it came on board there have been frequent instances of disagreement with the university management.

Modibbo, in a telephone interview on Tuesday evening, described the action as illegal and unacceptable.

He said by the act establishing the university, the governing council, through its finance and general-purpose committee (F&GPC) is empowered “to ensure judicious and appropriate use of all funds and monitoring of the university’s expenditure.”

The chairman said the governing council is also responsible for the approval of budgets of the university before it is passed on to the budget office, noting that until such is done, the management does not have the right to allocate available funds to specific projects.

He said the UNIABUJA management simply uploaded what was allocated to the university directly to the budget office without recourse to the council.

In his words “We thought that was undermining the position of the council and we took exception to that and demanded an explanation. We invited the concerned officials to an emergency meeting and both the bursar and the director of physical planning tried to provide an explanation that was not satisfactory to the F&GPC and the governing council as a whole.

“The council simply told them to do the right thing, but in the process, we discovered that they allocated huge sums of money to a project that wasn’t even essential as a priority project and it is also not an ongoing project which the guideline specifically indicated. But if they had come before the council, all these things would have been corrected to save the university from embarrassment.”

He said the council has suggested the reallocation of the fund to cater for the construction of more lecture theatres and that the authorities at the budget office of the federation had already approved the request for the reallocation.

Meanwhile, dissatisfied with the response provided by the bursar and the director of physical development, Messrs Rufai and Shuaibu, the council, last week, instructed the UNIABUJA vice-chancellor to query the officials.

The Education Committee of Parliament in Uganda is questioning Ministry of Education officials over the planned expenditure of Shs317b to oversee implementation of a Shs520b loan project.

The government had planned to construct 116 secondary schools across the country to absorb the growing number of learners.

However, the lawmakers learnt, in the written submission made by the State Minister for Higher Education, John Chyrsostom Muyingo, that 60 per cent of the said money would be spent on administrative roles.

Muyingo had appeared before the Committee to explain how his ministry plans to use $150m (about Shs529.1b) secured from the World Bank.

Muyingo said no doubt the rapid growth in the school aged population, coupled with the new demands posed by the pandemic and the huge influx of refugees into the country, had put further strain on the education delivery system.

He added: “This implies that the education system will have to significantly increase its current intake capacity if the country is to achieve the national universal primary and secondary school education by 2025.”

But the legislator representing Kassanda North, Patrick Nsamba, noted that for each school, it would cost government between Shs1.7b and Shs2.5b.

Which implies that the construction of schools would only take 40 per cent of the entire project.

“I have concluded that the range of constructing these schools is Shs2b. With 116 schools, we need about Shs232b. If we are having a loan and grant of Shs540b, the rest of the money, about Shs300b, is going into management. This is highly questionable, how can other costs take 60 per cent?” Nsamba asked.

To the dismay of the Members of Parliament, government had committed Shs42b to training of teachers and development of secondary school improvement strategies.

The Committee was also irked by the procedure the ministry had used to inform the final list of districts that would benefit from the said project.

Earlier on Tuesday, the same committee threw out Muyingo for failure to come with requisite documentation on the same project.

The Vice Chancellor of University of Benin, Prof. Lillian Imuetinya Salami, has tendered an apology to students of the institution.

She was also said to have also agreed that no student would be punished or victimised for taking part in the protest, especially for making her walk from her official lodge to the university’s main gate.

The apology was contained in a statement signed by the university Registrar, Ademola Bobola.

The statement read: “After due consultation, and in the overall interest of the general students’ body, the Vice Chancellor has, on behalf of Senate, apologised to our dear Students.

“This is based on security reports from the Department of State security (DSS) to avoid the students’ action being hijacked by hoodlums; and thereby prevent any form of breakdown of law and order within and outside the campuses of the University.

“Accordingly, students can login into their Kofa page as the extra charges has been reversed. Please disregard any message stating closure of the university before 12:00 noon.”

Earlier on Wednesday, September 15, aggrieved students of UNIBEN had ignored the order of the University Senate closing down the school as they continued their two-day old protest over the hike as penalty for paying tuition fees late.

Although the university management had on Tuesday announced the temporary closure of the institution claiming insecurity and the possible hijack of the protest, the students remained adamant.

Rather than complying with the vacation order from the campus, the students marched to the official lodge of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Lillian Imuetinyan Salami, and made her walk from her official residence to the university’s main gate on the Benin-Lagos road, on foot.

The protesting students made several video recordings of the Vice Chancellor, trekking the long distance.