ASUU asserted that there was nothing tangible coming from the government, particularly in the education sector, that could culminate in a positive change in the last eight and half years, adding that the government was only good and quick at making promises.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that the Nigerian government at all levels is not giving deserved attention to the education sector from the primary to tertiary levels.
ASUU asserted that there was nothing tangible coming from the government, particularly in the education sector, that could culminate in a positive change in the last eight and half years, adding that the government was only good and quick at making promises.
The national president of the union, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, made this known during in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune on Thursday, while urging the federal and other levels of governments to wake up and provide governance that would alleviate the suffering of the masses in the New Year.
He said, “There are so many funds with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) which belong to various state governments, which they are not accessing because they refused to provide their counterpart funds to claim what is due to them.
“So what this means is that the concerned states are not interested in improving their public schools; they are comfortable seeing the public schools go down while the private ones continue to thrive.
“These are some of what the political class is doing to the public tertiary institution too; to kill them the way they have killed public primary and secondary education.
“However, we (ASUU) won’t allow them to kill public universities because if we do, children of the poor may not be able to afford university education again in the country.
“Another thing is; the Nigerian political class does not have a genuine interest in developing the public school education; this is why they have low budgetary allocations to the sector.
“It is of recent that only three states namely, Oyo, Abia and Enugu, are now showing signs of seriousness to the education sector by allocating a reasonable percentage of their 2024 annual budgets to education.
“We believe that those three states are now convinced that it is only good and quality education that can cause a reasonable and positive change not only in the lives of the people in their states but also in the states and country at large.
“We hope that those states will implement their budgets according to projections and not divert it to something else.
“It will be good if the government at all levels in the New Year could look into the education sector holistically and adequately address areas of concerns to cause a meaningful and positive change beyond mere promises.”