Femi Falana, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says the
federal government cannot afford to ignore the funding of higher education
while spending trillions of naira on other projects.
Falana said this in a statement reacting to the current
strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
ASUU has been on strike since March to protest the
no-implementation of its demands some of which relate to funding.
The government and the lecturers’ union have had several
meetings but are yet to reach a compromise. On Monday, Buhari said he hoped
ASUU will “sympathise with the people on the prolonged strike”.
“Truly, enough is
enough for keeping students at home. Don’t hurt the next generation for
goodness sake,” he said.
Falana, in his statement, said the “claim of the Federal
Government that it lacks the financial resources to fund university education
has been taken with a pinch of salt by the Nigerian people”.
“Having regard to the way and manner huge public fund has
been expended on other projects it does appear that the Federal Government has
not prioritised higher education,” he said.
“For instance, the electricity sector and the counter
insurgency operations in two regions in the country have consumed not less than
N6 trillion without any tangible result. The Asset Management Corporation of
Nigeria (AMCON) claims that N5.4 trillion is owed by a section of the
comparador bourgeoisie whose toxic debts were bought with public fund.
“Even though N443 billion was spent on the importation of
fuel from January to June 2022 the National Assembly has approved N4 trillion
for the same product from July to December 2022 due to the comatose status of
the nation’s refineries.
“The Federal Government has also made available N100 billion
for revamping the textile industry; N850 billion for rice production; N250
billion for autogas vehicle conversion and N228 for school feeding programme.
Apart from its annual budget of N40 billion the Independent National Electoral
Commission has received N100 billion as the first tranche of the 2022 budget to
conduct the 2023 general elections.
“A government that can afford to spend trillions of Naira on
the aforesaid projects cannot afford to ignore the funding of higher education.
Therefore, the federal government should adopt concrete measures to end the
ASUU strike without any further delay.”
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