ASUU berates FG over poor funding of varsities

Ibadan Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has raised the alarm over funding of universities in the country.
The union called on President Muhammadu Buhari to save the universities by paying the outstanding N550bn NEEDS assessment intervention fund.
The fund was last paid in 2013 during the Goodluck Jonathan adminisration, while that for 2014 (N220bn), 2015 (N220bn) and 2016 (N110bn) have not been paid.
It said government attitude to funding education is killing the industry and making it difficult for it to be globally competitive and causing massive brain drain.
ASUU wondered why out of the capital budget allocated to education in the 2016 budget, 38 per cent went to Federal Government secondary schools, while only five per cent, three per cent and eight per cent were allocated to Federal Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and Universities respectively.

ASUU further tasked the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, to attend to issues of Earned Academic allowances, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU/FGN agreements, staff salaries, academic pension, TSA and university autonomy and budgetary allocation to education raised at their previous meetings before the university system is plunged into industrial crisis.
ASUU in a statement jointly signed by the Ibadan Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Ade Adejumo and Chairman UI Chapter, Dr. Deji Omole respectively, and made available to journalists, said Federal Government must inject funds into education for Nigerian universities to be globally competitive.
According to them, government cannot expect any miracle from its grossly under-funded universities to compete with their adequately funded and highly motivated academics around the globe.

According to ASUU, it is sad that the present government has further reduced budgetary allocation to education to worsen the sector from 11 per cent in 2013, 12 per cent in 2014, 11 per cent in 2015 to eight per cent in the 2016 budget.
They further lashed out at government officials for always shedding crocodile tears at university convocation where they decried low ranking of Nigerian universities while they take their children to study abroad.
ASUU also carpeted the present administration for fractional, irregular, non-payment of salaries and other personnel emoluments, adding that the union will resist any further attempt to erode university autonomy.
While noting that no country can develop beyond her educational institutions, ASUU cautioned the Federal Government against taking the union for granted.

It warned that while it is fully aware of the present socio-economic situations, government must continue to attend to critical sectors of the economy and find home grown models to rescue it from the present doldrums.