Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yesterday came hard on the education policy of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, describing it as wicked, criminal and against the needs of Nigerian youths.
The union in a statement issued yesterday by the Chairman, University of Ibadan chapter, Prof. Deji Omole, also accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government of a deliberate plan to starve public education of funds in order to deny youths the right to know and challenge misrule.
He warned that the sacrifices of understaffed and underpaid Nigerian academia will be futile if the president does not increase education funding.Omole who stated that the University of Ibadan is presently groaning due to paucity of funds, insufficient staff, decayed infrastructure and bad laboratories, lamented that education is not the priority of Buhari’s government.
He said due to paucity of funds over 500,000 Nigerian children who desire public university education are rejected annually due to poor funding, decayed infrastructure and reduced manpower, warning that unless urgent steps are taken to cater for the needs of the Nigerian children, many of them will fight back with crime.
“APC government’s failure to fund education is a design to kill public universities. University of Ibadan is groaning terribly due to paucity of funds. Retired academics cannot be replaced because government deliberately refused to make budgetary provision for growth and development. This crisis has led to the staff on ground being overworked, leading to early deaths of many of our colleagues. Education is not the priority this government. Due to paucity of funds, many universities, including University of Ibadan, the nation’s premier university cannot admit many qualified candidates into the universities. This is dangerous to the society as the rejected qualified and brilliant candidates may eventually take to crimes because the country has rejected them. The policy is not only wicked but criminal,” he explained.
