Considering the present economic circumstances, the N1.1 trillion overdue revitalization fund for the country’s universities is no longer relevant, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has said.
Dr. Ikechukwu Igwenyi, the chairman of the union chapter at Ebonyi State University, made this claim to reporters on Tuesday in Abakaliki, the state capital of Ebonyi.
Igwenyi encouraged the union’s national leadership to go back to the drawing board and reassess the 2009 agreement it struck with the Federal Government after seeing that the revitalization fund did not line up with the previous agreement the union entered with the authorities.
The union chapter head bemoaned that the government was only giving lip service to ASUU’s demands and said that it was important for leaders to consider the merits of ASUU’s position on tertiary education.
He said, “ASUU, as a thinking union of intellectuals, is not realistic in this current struggle and there is a need for the union to call for the review of the negotiated 2009 FG/ASUU agreement to ascertain possible performance rate and the expected outcomes.
“It is considered that the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement is not only out of date and obsolete, but unrealistic today, if the truth must be told, because of the time value of money over 13 years of this negotiation.
“It is a fact that people that take no interest in what seems small, will definitely take false interest in what is big. The fact is also that Nigerian leaders set wrong priorities and are not paying due attention to the demands of ASUU in this imbroglio but rather join the unpatriotic gladiators that have no interest in nation building through quality education of Nigerians because their children are not attending schools here in Nigeria.
“It is a clear testimony of irresponsibility with the recent vituperations from some highly placed individuals in government and the idea of taking ASUU to court.
“Rather than look critically into the merits in ASUU position on tertiary education, leaders tell Nigerians that university education is not for everyone; ASUU fixes salary of members; there is no money to meet ASUU’s demands; the government will take ASUU to National Industrial Court; students should take ASUU to court; etcetera. What a people!
“No nation can develop beyond the level of education of her people and by extension, beyond the capacities and capabilities of their tertiary institutions. If the youths who are the future leaders and trustees of posterity are trained in institutions with low-grade resources and manpower, where lecturers are subjected to dehumanising treatments, all manner of cruelty without consideration to human dignity, threats to job security and salaries, emotional trauma, mental torture and psychological mortification of unimaginable proportion in a developing nation, how can such a system perform maximally?”
He further said, “ASUU, therefore, is not realistic, because rather than calling for a review of the renegotiated agreement in the context of the current economic realities of dollar to naira ratio, they are asking for the release of funds negotiated in 2009, when a dollar was less than N150 as compared to present day reality rating of dollar to naira ratio of about N700.
“This implies that ASUU should be asking for about N5trn for the revitalisation of public universities in this current and prevailing economic dispensation.
“The about N1.1trn outstanding revitalisation fund cannot achieve the same objectives as prices of items like cement, rods, wood for furniture, reagents, and chemicals, equipment and stationeries, books and subscriptions, utility vehicles, fuel for generators and other consumables are no longer in tandem with the economic equivalents of same items 13 years ago.
“There is a need to review all the agreements upwards in terms of proportional inflation, currency devaluation, and today’s equivalent of the 13 years old negotiation as part of the renegotiation rather than demanding for the release of funds that cannot meet up with its purpose now because ASUU would be blamed in future for the failure of the system to achieve the purpose of these struggles.
“It is for this same reason that ASUU is demanding for the release of the White Paper on the Visitation Panel Reports to assess the level of success or failure rate so far recorded in the funding for revitalisation of public universities.”