Buhari government worst in education funding – ASUU

The Academic Staff of Universities’ Union has said that the nonchalant attitude of the Buhari-led government to education appears to be the worst in the history of Nigeria with about seven per cent allocation to education, and warned that such stifl ing of education funding under President Muhammadu Buhari administration is preparing the country for future doom. Chairman, University of Ibadan (UI) ASUU chapter, Dr. Deji Omole, who stated this on Monday in an interview with journalists, noted that the failure to vote enough money to public education is already causing gradual crisis of confrontation between school administration and students in some parts of the country.
“It will be difficult to have a citizen that will love the country in the future if the current trend of abandoning the poor while taking care of the rich continues. While each senator is paid N13.5m as running cost per month, the same Senate appropriated a paltry the sum of N66m for capital projects for UI with student population of about 30,000.
“This can only happen where the ruling class lacks vision like in Nigeria. This same government refuses to drop a kobo for the revitalisation of public universities. Now many children of the masses are denied access because universities cannot admit beyond what the dilapidated infrastructure can cope with. But their parents cannot afford private university.
The federal government is owing about N800bn revitalisation funds to public varsities as contained in the agreements with ASUU,” Omole said. ASUU, who vowed that the union will oppose any plan to force children of the masses out of school by imposing on them dues that are the duties of federal government, asserted that the ruling APC has performed poorly in Education.
According to the union, the United States of America where members of the elite take their children funds her public varsities well because the USA is interested in bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, and knows the negative implication of having a growing pool of illiterates as we have in Nigeria.
Omole lamented that the Buhari government has paid lip service to public education but prefers to pacify militants and terrorists, adding that while the masses are groaning under hardship, the political class have amassed enough money taken from the collective patrimony in preparation for the 2019 general elections.