Fund Education to Check Rising Insecurity, ASUU Tells FG

Fund Education to Check Rising Insecurity, ASUU Tells FG

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yesterday laid the blame for the rising insecurity in the country on government’s failure to fund education and educate children of the masses.

The union also said the allocation to education in the 2019 budget which is yet to be passed by the National Assembly is about the worst in recent past.

The Chairman, ASUU University of Ibadan chapter,  Prof. Deji Omole, in a release made available to ThisDay, said the future of the country looks bleak with the attitude of her leaders to fund education, notice that the ruling class should see the rising insecurity as one of the consequences of failing to educate the teeming youths  and attending to the welfare of the people.

He called on the Federal Government to pay the N25billion Earned Academic Allowances it agreed to pay before the union suspended its strike in February, 2019, disclosing that while government has released N20billion revitalization fund to the universities, no university has received the N25billion Earned Academic Allowances that government claimed it has released.

According to him, the union expects the government to strictly follow the timelines allocated to meeting specific demands now that elections are over, insisting that while the union is discussing renegotiation of its agreements with government, it should do the needful and implement all outstanding components of the Memorandum signed with the union.

He said, “The N20billion for revatilisation has been sent to the universities. The issue of renegotiation has started. The issue of the payment of Earned Academic Allowances has not been done months after suspending the strike. Government claimed it has released the money but it has not reached the university so that is why we are saying that in terms of the timelines, we can say we have not followed the MOA religiously. But in a country where everything has to stop for elections, we assume government will do the needful and put issues in the MOA behind us by fully implementing it now that elections are over.

“We are not happy about 2019 budget to education. They presented this budget while we were on strike. We had assumed that a government that promised change will increase the budgetary allocation to education while the university staffs are on strike. However, we realized that the budget was further cut down in terms of percentage allocated to education. This is about the worst in recent past. You can know that when you have such an attitude from people in Government who feel that they can achieve much without education, the future of that country is bleak.”

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