The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has called on the Federal Government (FG) to grant the National Universities Commission (NUC) full authority to manage the budgets of public universities, arguing that such a move would enhance institutional autonomy and efficiency.
Speaking as a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political program aired on Channels Television, Oloyede emphasized that university education is highly sensitive and should be managed by experts. He stated that the NUC, which already regulates and accredits courses, should also be responsible for overseeing university budgets.
“We can still re-engineer the situation to achieve the results we need. The funding mechanism needs to be re-evaluated,” he said. “The NUC should be solely responsible for running the universities. Hold the NUC accountable for managing them.”
Oloyede, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, criticized the current practice where public universities individually defend their budgets before the National Assembly, often securing funds based on personal connections and lobbying power rather than actual institutional needs. He noted that when the NUC previously managed university budgets, funding decisions were made based on objective criteria through the Universities Annual Review System, which analyzed student enrollment across disciplines to determine the next year’s budget.
“When the NUC was in charge, things were well-organized,” he recalled. “I strongly believe that the autonomy we seek for our universities can be better achieved if we allow the NUC to coordinate their affairs.”
He further pointed out that under the NUC’s previous management, capital development funding was significantly higher, but with universities now handling their own budgets, a disproportionate amount of funding is spent on administrative staff rather than infrastructure and academic improvements.
Oloyede also advocated for a performance-based funding model, where universities receive allocations based on the number of students admitted and the cost of training them in various disciplines. “We could get to a point where, for instance, the University of Abuja is allocated funds based on the number of medical doctors it trains,” he suggested. “The government would determine the cost of training one doctor and fund the university accordingly, incorporating both capital and recurrent expenditures as well as research needs.”
Additionally, he criticized the proliferation of new universities, arguing that Nigeria does not need more institutions but rather a strategic expansion and enhancement of existing ones. “Politicians now use university creation as a form of political compensation for marginalized communities when what these areas truly need are industries and factories,” he said.
Oloyede’s remarks highlight growing concerns about the funding and governance of Nigeria’s public universities and call for a centralized, transparent, and more effective management approach under the NUC.
