The Academic staff union of universities (ASUU) has accused the Federal Government (FGN) of a deliberate ploy to deny children of poor Nigerians access to university education through commercialization of public universities in Nigeria.
The ASUU Zonal coordinator, ASUU Owerri zone, Dr. Uzo Onyebinama who disclosed this in a press conference held in Awka Anambra stated that ASUU believes that education is a public good and considers the proposal for an education bank and a student’s loan scheme as deliberate effort to commercialize public universities and at the other hand, provide incentives for private universities to thrive.
The ASUU boss, stated that the federal Government’s introduction of the scheme into the renegotiation of 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement process by the Federal Government team, led by Dr. Wale Babalakin was a deliberate attempt to blackmail the union before the Nigerian students and the general public.
Dr. Onyebinama who expressed dismay over the insistence of the federal government that education ought to be funded from “diverse sources”, revealed that the federal Government has jettisoned the principle of collective bargaining and the gains of previous agreements Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MoA).
He appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Federal Government to show good faith and restart the renegotiation process by reconstituting the current Government team and implement the outstanding components of the 2017 MoA through the release of the forensic audit report on the payments of the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) payments of the balance of the arrears of EAA for 2009-2012; mainstreaming of the EAA into the annual budget; payment of all arrears of salary shortfalls in all universities that have been verified under the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Auditing (PICA) and the payment of EAA claims of genuine ASUU members in the universities of Ilorin.
He further identified undue interference in the administration of state universities, under-funding of state universities as well as the non-implementation of various components of the 2009 agreements in many state universities as factors bedeviling various state universities in the country, and urged the federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, provide a platform for the leadership of ASUU to engage state governors on these matters among others, to avoid any untoward industrial disharmony that will truncate academic activities in the universities.
Other ASUU stakeholders present at the event include; the chairperson ASUU Federal University of Technology Owerri, Christopher Echerobia; chairperson ASUU Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Chinyere Echendu; chairperson ASUU ,Nnamdi Azikiwe University Akwa, Steve Ufoaroh and the chairperson, ASUU, Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu University, Emeka Nwabunnia among others.
