The University of Ibadan chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr Deji Omole yesterday called on the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu to without wasting time, declare emergency in the education sector. Dr Omole, who made the call while speaking with journalists in Ibadan, said the time had come for the federal government to face the sector and stop playing politics.
The ASUU chairman challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the kind of education Nigerian children are exposed to is of global standard and at par with what his children had abroad.
He disclosed that the education minister needed to be reminded that the future of the children of the masses must not be politicised with the declaration and wondered why at the last week of April, the plan to declare emergency in the sector is yet to be perfected. The ASUU chairman noted that it was sad for a government that fails to improve access to education for teeming millions of youths yearning for education to state that the same youths are sitting down and waiting for freebies.
“What has the government done to salvage the condition of the 12 million out-of -school children in Nigeria? What has the government done to ensure employment for over 16 million unemployed Nigerians? “What plan does the government have for graduates who go through the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) every year but frustrated by lack of job and hostile environment to even start a small and medium scale business?
If the government fails to attend to the needs of the youth today, they will become nightmares for Nigeria in the future,” he said. Dr Omole added that the minister had raised the hopes of declaring emergency in the educational sector of the country in April this year apparently to proffer solutions to the low quality of education being offered the Nigerian children.
