Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of the ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities), has spoken up about the problems regarding university funding in the nation.
While speaking during an interview at the University of Abuja on Tuesday, July 19, he said that the money meant for the development of human capacity as well as the public in the nation usually disappears.
Osodeke stated that the government was always hesitant when it came to issuing money to the funding of the health and education sector.
Additionally, he said that the union was not surprised that the leadership of the Ministry of Labour and Employment could yield to the brink of criticizing the import of enormous injection of funds in the University Education sub-sector as they attempted to miserably ignore the vexed problem of funding Nigerian public universities and boosting the nation’s intellectual capital.
ASUU thinks that the idea of the availability of funds is a diligent process. For example, the government can mobilize funds from various sources, including non-budgetary outlets such as stamp duty, alcoholic taxes and GSM.
He stated that we are sickened by the recent calls by top government levels at both state and federal levels to launch more universities at a time agencies operated by the same Chief Executives are tightly packed for funding.
While reacting to the acclaimed breakaway faction of ASUU, the Congress of University Academics (CONUA), the President, said that ASUU was unaware of any such group.
According to the sources, CONUA earlier maintained that its members didn’t join in the strike with the ASUU but had been working since the commencement of industrial action.
On the other hand, As the continued strike by University lecturers hit its 156th day, the National Executive Council of the ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) is scheduled to conduct its meeting on Saturday, July 30 or Monday, August 1, 2022.