On Thursday, Ndume criticised the government for the payment of half salaries to the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body of university lecturers.
The lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ali Ndume has faulted the Nigerian government’s failure to spend N1 trillion on public universities.
On Thursday, Ndume criticised the government for the payment of half salaries to the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body of university lecturers.
According to Ndume, the government should reduce the salaries of National Assembly members to meet the demands of university lecturers.
Speaking to journalists in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, Ndume queried the government for spending no fewer than N8.3 trillion on public servants while refusing to commit N1 trillion to the improvement of public universities, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
He said, “Even if it means that the National Assembly will reduce sitting allowances or be paid on casual allowances basis whenever they sit at the lower and upper chambers, by cutting the recurrent expenditure in the budget of the federal lawmakers to settle the ASUU arrears, let it be. It will be in the overall national interest of Nigerians
“We only assemble twice or so per week and get paid as such. Civil servants who worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic and were paid their full salaries and allowances monthly.
“So why will the federal government cut university lecturers’ salaries because they went on legitimate strike? Constitutionally, they are fighting for their rights and privileges. As a matter of priority and as a public servant in the legislative chambers, we don’t work; so why don’t you just give us half salary and then pay ASUU?
“It is high time they resolve the issue once and for all even if they have to borrow or make supplementary budgets. We are budgeting 20.5 trillion for 2023, I don’t see any reason why the government will not budget one trillion to address the lingering challenges of the education sector including ASUU strikes.
“Eight months, students were at home doing nothing and they are the public and we are the public servants. In the budget for 2023, the overhead is 43 percent.
“If you can spend N8.3trillion on public servants, why don’t you spend N1trillion in public universities? Some of those involved in the negotiations do not have children in public universities.
“How can you be talking about something that you have no stake in? I don’t have a child in public schools, all my children are schooling outside the country; most politicians are like that too and they are the ones negotiating.
“With this to me, we will not get anywhere. Even if we got somewhere, it will be temporary because other people will be playing in the gallery.
“Some of them will be claiming to be defending the interest of the federal government and the others will be pretending to be defending the interest of the masses and at the end, they are only playing to the gallery.”
ASUU and the federal government have been at loggerheads over several issues including improved funding for universities.
The lecturers went on strike for eight months to push for the implementation of their demands, during which the government insisted on a “No work, no pay” policy.
ASUU called off the strike in October after a series of negotiations with the hope that they would be paid for the eight months they were on strike.