ASUU: Remove N200 Million From N4 Trillion To Fund Universities, Union Tells FG

Amid the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike due to the inability of the Federal Government of Nigeria to fulfill the agreement signed with the union, the President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, has attacked the government for not giving attention to tertiary education in the country.

The President said this after the government addressed the issue of fuel subsidy with a budget of N4 trillion while ignoring that of universities.

Osodeke speaking on Wednesday on Channels Television requested the government to use N200 billion out of the N4 trillion budget fixed for the fuel subsidy to settle the problems of members of ASUU, thereby putting an end to the ongoing strike.

“It is always funny that the government cannot raise N200 billion to revamp all Nigeria’s universities annually, to world standards.

"The same government can raise N4trillion for fuel subsidy.

“You can raise a budget to make N4 trillion for subsidy in a year, but you cannot raise N200 billion to fund your education where you don’t have the infrastructure.

"You can spend N228 billion to feed children in primary or secondary schools but you cannot raise this fund for your university; it is an issue of priority. That is the problem.

“If you remove N200 billion from N4 trillion to fund your universities, you still have N3.8 trillion 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.”