Strike: VCs Beg Buhari To Takeover Negotiation With ASUU, Others

Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to take charge and speed up the process of resolving the ongoing trade union dispute between Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other unions in tertiary institutions in the country.

The vice-chancellors under the aegis of Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, (CVCNU), said their call was necessitated by the impact of the strike on both students and the institutions.

“We plead that drastic action is taken to stem the haemorrhage that the system is currently witnessing. For the sake of our children and our society, we need a decisive decision,” Chairman of CVCNU, Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo.

He spoke at the public presentation of the Model Intellectual Property for Nigerian universities, unveiled on Thursday, in Abuja.

The document is the outcome of collaboration between the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) and the CVCNU with support from the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Office of Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP).

According to the vice-chancellors, the objective of the intellectual property for universities was to promote the generation, sustainable utilisation and better management of intellectual property in Nigerian universities.

Edoumiekumo explained that the journey to the presentation of the intellectual property policy document began in 2020 when the NCC and the CVCNU met and compared notes on possible areas of collaboration.

He added: “Intellectual property became the focal point of the deliberation given its essential role in the academic operations of universities in particular and the principal role of ideas in a knowledge-driven economy and society.

“Over the years, there have been several attempts by the Copyright Commission, which is the regulatory body, to ensure that academic institutions properly codify their intellectual property policies to conform with the World Intellectual Property format.

“The CVCNU recognised this as a significant venture and worked with the NCC to develop a model intellectual property policy upon which universities that do not currently have one can build.

“The model policy document went through six stages of preparation. It conforms with the World Intellectual Property Organisations, (WIPO) format on IP policy development and contains clauses that clearly state the ownership of ideas and inventions that are developed with resources from the universities and the rights of use.