FG paying lip service to education, ASUU president accuses

National President, Academic staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, has accused  usual successive federal governments in the country since 1999 of paying lip service to the education sector.

Ogunyemi made the observation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Saturday, in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

Ogunyemi noted that as a result of this, most Nigerian Universities were ordinary caricatures to what ideal Universities should be.

“Look at our budgets for education in the last five years at national; we have not gone beyond eight per cent. In 2018, the sector was given seven per cent, which was a far cry from what we needed.

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“Though, we say that the Federal Government was not doing much, the state governments are even the worst culprits.

“The governors prefer awarding contracts in primary and secondary schools rather than pay counterpart fund to enable them access Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funds.

“In 2017, a total of 17 states could not access their fund piling up in UBEC because they couldn’t pay their counterpart fund,” he said.

Ogunyemi said if things must work, governments must look into the education system and tackle the myriad of challenges plaguing the sector.

He insisted that numerous challenges bedeviling the country such as insecurity, unemployment,  cultism and other socio-economic cum political challenges were due to poor attention given to the education sector.

Ogunyemi, who was in Awka to attend the valedictory lecture and book presentation by Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, IkennaOnyido, used the occasion to appeal to the FG to release the 25 billion naira it agreed with ASUU in February.

“During the last strike we embarked on, FG assured ASUU that it would pay N25 billion of what it was supposed to pay to the universities.

“It is more than three months now that we reached an agreement with the government, nothing has happened”, he said.

The ASUU boss called on Nigerians to talk to the government on the matter, noting that his leadership of the union would not have the power to prevent its members from any action they want to take on the issue.