The N1.6 trillion paid annually as tuition by Nigerians in foreign schools is huge enough to fix the problems of the nation’s university system, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said.
ASUU also disagreed with Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige’s claim that he had done what many could not do to forestall strikes by university teachers.
President of the union, Emmanuel Osodeke, said this at a meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja yesterday.
The meeting attended by presidents and general secretaries of all affiliate unions of the NLC was convened to deliberate on the state of education among other issues
Osodoke lamented that the nation’s education system was fast deteriorating and falling below global standards.
He also said that a situation where 90 per cent of a university’s staff members come from its catchment area or region was a major impediment to the improvement of the education sector
The ASUU president told the labour leaders that N1.6tr spent on tuition by Nigerians in foreign universities was enough to address the majority of the crisis that flare industrial disharmony.
His words: “Let’s work on the system in such a way that if it works our university can compete with any other university in the world in terms of staff and students.
“When you go to other universities, even in Benin Republic, you have multiple people from different countries at the university with multiple ideas but in Nigeria, we have refused to even look at the states; we have 90 per cent of staff from the state and that’s the problem we’re having.
“No foreign student is coming in here, so many of our Nigerian students are moving abroad.
“A report earlier this year by the Central Bank (CBN)stated that Nigerians spend N1.6 trillion every year on school fees outside. That money could revamp this system if we allow it to work. So, those are the major reasons why we are on strike.”
On Ngige’s remarks that he had done all that was necessary to avert strikes by lecturers, the ASUU boss said that under his(Ngige) tenure as Labour minister, the Nigerian university system had been “destroyed”
He said: “What has he (Ngige) done? How many universities in Nigeria do we have today that can attract students from outside the country?
“During his (Ngige’s) tenure, the Nigerian university has been reduced to nothing. I give you an example, the university is an autonomous community.
“There is no university in the world where lecturers’ salaries are paid from a ministry. But today, if the vice-chancellor sees a very high-class professor he wants to employ, he has to go to the office of the Head of Service to get permission.
“That is the meanest thing that happened to us and he said he has done something. What has he done? He has destroyed the system.”
On the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), a payment platform developed by lecturers to place the government’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), the ASUU president maintained there was an ulterior motive behind its rejection.
“For any publicly funded public programme that scored 99.3 per cent before it will come to the minister who set up the committee for him to say he hates it, it tells you that there is an ulterior motive and that ulterior motive you can track to that particular minister,” Osodeke said.
Asked if Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami refused to give the nod due to ASUU’s rejection of his award of professorship from the Federal University of Technology Owerri, he said: “Is it possible for a serving minister who is in office to get up and apply for a job and do the two at the same time?
“That is what we are against and for that, he wants to punish this country because the union is saying that every university should do what is correct.
“As far as we are concerned, the UTAS we have produced has passed all the tests that are needed to apply it which they did not apply to this. We are challenging NITDA to do an open demonstration of UTAS and let them back into it in the presence of journalists and Nigerians.”
NLC President Ayuba Wabba had before the meeting commenced lamented that the government pays lip service to issues concerning education.
Wabba said: “We are facing a period of great injustice on the downtrodden of the society, children of the poor are at home but the children of the rich are going to school. We have written several communications to the government but no response till date, rather they are busy discussing politics.
“As you all know, the children of the poor are at home while those of the rich are going to school. To date, we have communicated through recommendations to the government but no response.
“This is most disheartening because people in our generation benefited from free education from primary to tertiary level. This is not acceptable, instead of the politicians discussing these issues as a national emergency they are occupied with the 2023 elections.
“We would be looking at the upcoming political dispensation. We must engage politicians, making sure the downtrodden are accommodated in the next political dispensation.”
