Buhari Says Corrupt Education Unions Undermining Government Investment

President Muhammadu Buhari has accused tertiary education unions of corruption.

This comes after the President's several pleas to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off the ongoing strike have fallen on deaf ears.

At the event of declaring open the Fourth National Summit on Diminishing Corruption organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Office of Secretary to Government of the Federation (OSGF) and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Buhari accused the unions of being involved in corrupt practices in the tertiary education sector.

The President at the summit themed "Corruption And The Education Sector" maintained that the corruption of the unions continues to sabotage the investment of the government in the sector.

He added that the critics overlooked the corruption of the unions, paying attention to the budgetary allocations to the sector.

He further urged education stakeholders to seek accountability in the administration of academic institutions while also checking the recurrent expenditure of the institutions.

“This year’s summit will mirror how corruption undermines educational policies, and investments and create an unfriendly learning environment for our youths.

“Incessant strikes especially by unions in the tertiary education often imply that the government is grossly underfunding education, but I must say that corruption in the education system from basic level to the tertiary level has been undermining our investment in the sector and those who go on prolonged strikes on flimsy reasons are no less complicit.

“The 1999 Constitution places a premium on education by placing it on the Concurrent List, thereby laying the responsibilities of budgeting and underwriting qualitative education on both the Federal and State Governments.

“The total education budget for each year is, therefore, a reflection of both federal and state budgets and should be viewed as other financial commitments in their totality.

“The allocation to education in the federal budget should not be considered via allocation to the Federal Ministry of Education and also academic institutions alone but should include an allocation to the Universal Basic Education, transfers to TETFUND and refund from the Education Tax Pool Account to TETFUND.

“Corruption in the expenditure of internally generated revenue of tertiary institutions is a matter that has strangely not received the attention of stakeholders in tertiary education, including unions.

“I call on stakeholders to demand accountability in the administration of academic institutions and for unions to interrogate the bloated personnel and recurrent expenditure of their institutions.

"Let me also implore the Unions to work with the government to put faces and identities to names on the payroll.

“Due to declining resources, the government cannot bear the cost of funding education alone.

"I task our academics to attract endowments, research and other grants to universities, polytechnics and colleges of education similar to what obtains in other countries.”