According to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, all the 16 universities and other higher institutions established by Goodluck Jonathan's administration are illegal.

President of the union, Dr. Issa Fagge Nassir, according to New Telegraph says the institutions lack the necessary legal backing and so may be living on borrowed time.

He also said the recent conversion of four colleges of education to universities by the Federal Executive Council, is an assault on the Acts establishing the colleges.

According to him universities are not only established via executive fiats but through thorough consultations with stakeholders and deep understudy of the pros and cons of such decisions.

"So the Federal Government is only compounding the problems already bedeviling the education sector and I wonder if the incoming administration will allow this to stand.

“Strictly speaking, the Federal Government is not respecting its own laws, and I wonder how you just transmute an institution without looking at its laws. What happens to its staff, facilities and infrastructure?”

The ASUU president also queried the release of N500 million each to the four new universities as take-off grant, saying the money alone cannot be enough for staff training not to talk of infrastructural upgrade.