Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU), says the union’s strike would have been addressed earlier
if politicians’ children attend public universities in the country.
Osodeke spoke on Tuesday during an interview on Channels
Television.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14 over the federal
government’s failure to honour an agreement on issues bordering on funding of
universities, as well as salaries and allowances of lecturers.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, gave Adamu Adamu,
minister of education, two weeks to resolve issues of contention regarding the
ASUU strike.
Reacting to Buhari’s directive, the ASUU president said the
two-week ultimatum is “too long”, and that the union can suspend its strike in
less than two days if the federal government honours its agreement with the
union.
“Two weeks is too long. The issue of renegotiation has been
completed by both sides, which means that one is gone. They should just come
back to us and say ‘we have agreed, sign it’. That should not take two days,”
Osodeke said.
“If you have a crisis in your house, you will source for
money to resolve that crisis — the way they are sourcing for money to do all
kinds of things.
“We were told they
spent billions to feed children in schools. Is that correct? How many children
have you seen being fed. They released N200 billion for entrepreneurship
programme.
“Your universities are closed for five months, you did not
release N100 billion, but you released money to share in villages because
election is coming. It is the priority you place on education.
“Government should prioritise education as number one
priority in the country, because all of us here, wherever you are, you must
pass through the school. Now that you have killed it, we are wasting our money
on foreign countries.
“Last year, according to CBN, Nigerians spent N1.6 trillion
as school fees to other countries. N1.6 trillion will turn around all the
universities in Nigeria and bring them to standard and people will come from
outside. We go outside; nobody comes in.
“For this strike,
universities are shut down. Those who run the affairs of Nigeria – national
assembly and executive arm – they do not have any problem. Their children are
not here. If the children of all the ministers and senators are all in our
public universities, this will not last two days.
“When the aviation people wanted to shut down, the national
assembly called them immediately and settled them overnight because fear could
not allow them pass through roads. They quickly resolved it.”
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