The Benin Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities has come out to expose what it called the government’s “deliberate ploy to destroy the education system of this country through deliberate starvation of funds”.
The position of the union was made known as a press conference at the union’s secretariat in the University of Benin over the weekend.
The press conference was addressed by Prof. Fred Esumeh, Zonal Coordinator; Prof. Julius Iyasele, Chairperson, Univeristy of Benin; Dr. Monday Igbafen, Chairperson, Ambrose Ali University; Dr. Sola Fayose, Chairperson, Adekunle Ajasin University; and Dr. A. Akomolafe, Chairperson, Osun State University of Science and Technology.
They said that their resolve to go on industrial actions in previous years led to a Memorandum of Understanding in 2013 and a Memorandum of Action in 2017, which the government never implemented.
The ASUU drew the attention of proprietors of state universities to the problem of proliferation of state universities without adequately funding the existing ones.
Dr. Wale Babalakin, Chairman of the government renegotiation team, was accused by the ASUU of jettisoning “substantive input of a joint committee of members of government and ASUU team on funding, dismissed opposing proposals, all in negation of the principles of collective bargaining”.
Going further, the ASUU stressed: “This attitude of Dr. Wale Babalakin that saw to the breakdown of the renegotiation, couple with the abysmal low budgetary provision to the education sector in the 2018 budget (7 per cent), as against the UNESCO recommendation of 26 per cent, are clear testimonies of the disdain with which government of Nigeria treats education.”
ASUU then called on “well-meaning Nigerians, stakeholders in the education sector and leaders of thought to call on government to fund education, for the inadequate funding of education is the albatross in Nigeria’s developmental stride in the community of nations”.