The Nigeria Union of Teachers(NUT) has expressed great displeasure over the current economic hardship most Nigerians are going through, especially since the removal of fuel subsidy that has continued to push many people deeper down the poverty line.
The Secretary-General of NUT, Mike Ike-Ene, expressed this concern in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Tribune when assessing the state of Nigeria at 63 years of its political independence.
According to him, there’s real poverty in the land, and it is boldly written on the faces of people everywhere across the country.
He observed that Nigeria’s situation has gotten to a stage where no sector of the economy, including education and health, can be said to be working well.
Therefore, he explained that for the government to be now asking Nigerians to be patient and endure more hardship is absolutely uncalled for as most Nigerians can no longer feed well, let alone get access to other basic life needs.
According to him, the government wouldn’t have hurriedly withdrawn fuel subsidies when it had no concrete plans and modalities to prevent the hardship that would come with the policy.
He said as Nigeria’s situation was, especially with the people’s purchasing power going down each day, the government would need to do take concrete steps towards taking a substantial populace out of extreme poverty.
However, Ike-Ene noted that it might be difficult for Nigeria to experience true prosperity unless the government at all levels stops giving lip service to the education sector.
He said the government would need to allocate up to 15 or 20 per cent of their yearly budget to education.
According to him, no country can develop beyond the level of its education, which means there would be a quantum of investment that can be considered too much for education.
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