ASUU Strike: Fund Varsities from the N4trillion Budgeted for Subsidy- Prof. Osodeke.
The President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, has accused the Federal Government of being nonchalant towards tertiary education.
According to him, the Federal Government had addressed the issue of fuel subsidy with a budget of N4trillion, but delibrately ignored issues concerning ASUU’s demands.
Prof. Osodeke made this known during a programme on Channels Television on Wednesday 20 April, Osodeke asked the government to take N200bn from the N4trillion budgeted for fuel subsidy to address the challenges of its members, and put an end to the strike.
In his words: “It is always funny that the government cannot raise N200bn to revamp all Nigeria’s universities annually, to world standards. but can raise N4trillion for fuel subsidy.
“How can raise a budget to make N4trillion for subsidy in a year, but you cannot raise N200bn to fund your education where you don’t have good infrastructure? You can spend N228bn to feed children in primary or secondary schools but you cannot raise funds for your Universities; this is a clear case of misplaced priorities, and that is where the problem lies.
“If the Government remove N200bn from N4trillion to fund your universities, they will still have N3.8trillion for fuel subsidy.
“We don’t believe there is a fuel subsidy. There is no country where you have the crude intelligentsia. You have been importing fuel for the past 20 years; something is ongoing. No country in the world will do that. In the 60s, we built four refineries, and between 1999 and now, we cannot build one or service the ones we had.”
