Legal luminary, Afe Babalola, has faulted the establishment of universities by legislation, insisting that the National Assembly has no right to do so.
He made the comment in a ceremony to mark the 12th anniversary of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State on Tuesday.
The legal icon expressed concern that many substandard tertiary institutions have been established through such a process.
“The members of NASS have no right to pass a law to say [for instance that] Dr. Akinlade is allowed to set up a university in his hometown. These political universities are being established by so-called members of the house who will pass a motion to establish one single-subject university in their hometowns,” the founder of the university noted.
“And what happens? As soon as they leave, that’s the end of the universities. Today, we have more than 100 such so-called universities. ”
He insists that the National Universities Commission (NUC) is the authority saddled with the approval of universities.
Babalola urged the Ministry of Education and the NUC “to exercise their powers to checkmate this in the interest of quality education in the country”.
“Every attempt must be made by all stakeholders to put a lid on the establishment of political universities that hardly survive those who put them in place after they are out of power, otherwise there will be a crash in the quality of private universities,” he added.