The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof Lilian Salami, on Wednesday, says the school management is ready to resume academic activities in a safe and secure manner.
She said the university management will enforce strict compliance to COVID-19 protocols to protect students and members of staff from being exposed to coronavirus infections.
The vice-chancellor spoke while featuring on NTA Good Morning Nigeria breakfast show.
Salami said some students have started issuing threats to beat up lecturers should the closure of public universities persists.
Students of public universities have been at home since March 2020 when the Academic Staff Union of Universities began a nine-month-long strike over certain demands. The union, however, conditionally suspended the industrial action on December 24, 2020, after a lot of foot-dragging by lecturers and the Federal Government.
Yet, when students were hopeful of returning to classrooms, the country entered the second wave of the pandemic while the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 subsequently ordered schools to remain closed till January 18, 2021 to contain the spike in COVID-19 infections in Nigeria.
But ASUU has insisted that it is not safe for lecturers and students to return to classrooms as it cannot guarantee social distancing in crowded classes and congested hostels.
Reacting on the television programme on Wednesday, the UNIBEN vice-chancellor said the school authority will do all in its power to enforce COVID-19 protocols in the university community.
Salami said, “I want to say categorically that Vice-Chancellors are responsible persons having gone through the furnace. We will not in any way want to expose our staff, our students to any danger.
“Having said that, public-funded universities are far from what they ought to be. We have said this over and over that there is poor funding, infrastructure are down and decayed. The ratio of staff to students is quite large that for proper learning to take place, we have to address these issues.
