The Academic Staff Union of Universities reacted on Saturday to the Federal Government’s decision to inject new N2 trillion into the economy, stating that omitting education from emergency funds is grossly insensitive.
President Bola Tinubu recently revealed the results of the Federal Government’s review of the accelerated stabilisation and advancement plan, which aims to pump N2 trillion into the economy over the next six months.
On Thursday, the president made the presentation while inaugurating a 31-member Presidential Economic Coordination Council at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja. He stated that his administration was determined to increase crude oil production to two million barrels per day and generate more electricity for Nigerians in the coming months.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, told state house correspondents after the presentation that the Health, Agriculture, and Energy/Power sectors will be priority in the emergency funding.
The finance minister stated that N350 billion would be allocated to Health and Social Welfare, N500 billion to Agriculture and Food Security, N500 billion to Energy and Power, and N650 billion to General Business Support.
However, ASUU National President Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said it was insensitive for the Federal Government to omit the education sector from the emergency funding, given the severe issues that Nigerian universities have faced for years.
Remember that recently, some ASUU chapters across the country protested over the government’s failure to meet some of their lingering demands, which include a renegotiation of the FG/ASUU 2009 agreement, payment of four-month withheld salaries, payment of arrears of earned academic allowances, deactivation of the Integrated Personal and Payroll Information System as a payment mode for members, a stop to the proliferation of universities, and the government’s full funding of universities.
Osodeke stated that not allocating education parts of the emergency funding demonstrates gross insensitivity to the recent outcry from university lecturers, despite the fact that the government recently met with the national body of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions to avert their proposed industrial action.
“Imagine you want to use N2tn to revamp the Nigerian system, yet you won’t put one kobo in education. Meanwhile, everybody in the sector from the primary level to the tertiary has been agitating against its poor condition. They (government) have been investing trillions on roads and not a kobo for the educational system. And that is why we are at this level today.
“We have said it many times that those in government are not interested in Nigerian educational system as directed by their principals: the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Secondly, even children of the Nigerian leaders are not here. They are abroad. So whether education collapses here is not an issue for them. And that is why we have been in struggle to ensure that children of the poor have access to education. But it is obvious that those in government are not interested in that,” the ASUU president stated.
When asked if excluding education from the new emergency funds demonstrates the government’s sensitivity to ASUU’s current predicament, he responded, “No, they are not. Even it is same for the Nigerian Labour Congress. How long has this issue of minimum wage been going on? Yet, they are telling the workers not to talk of living wage, but only minimum wage. You can imagine a leader telling his workers not to talk about the cost that can keep him and his family alive.”
Regarding ASUU’s next anticipated action in light of the recent outcry from its state chapters over government negligence, Prof. Osodeke simply stated, “You will get our plan when we meet.”