ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on the Federal Government to act responsibly and save the country’s university education system from imminent collapse.
The union expressed regret that the Federal Government had demonstrated aloofness and allowed education standards to fall in public universities as a result of poor funding.
The chairperson of ASUU at the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Socrates Ebo, in a statement on Wednesday, berated the government for refusing to abide by the agreement it signed with the union in 2009.
Ebo said ASUU-FUO at its congress meeting held on Tuesday “condemned the government’s reckless foot-dragging to comprehensively addressing the crisis in the nation’s tertiary education.”
He said they also resolved to stay away from the classrooms throughout the eight weeks’ extension of the ongoing nationwide strike declared by the national executive of ASUU.
The statement read in part: “It is with sadness that we view the unfolding but highly avoidable crisis in tertiary education sector in the country, and a dishonourable refusal by government to abide by the agreement it reached with ASUU to salvage the university education system in the country.
“It is a shame that government has stayed aloof to watch our tertiary education system nosedive in standards from world class in the sixties and early seventies to the nondescript, sorry situation that our public universities have been reduced to; to the point that universities in Togo, Ghana, Benin, Uganda and almost everywhere in Africa now fare better than our universities.
“Nigeria is the undisputed giant of Africa in terms of human and material resources. Alas, we cannot place a single university on the global map of world class universities; a feat lesser African countries have achieved.
“We must keep in perspective that the government has chosen a highly ineffective payment platform riddled with fraud and irregularities over a homegrown technology (UTAS) developed by the best brains in the country.
“How can a government that mouths the mantra of anti-corruption prefer a leaky payment platform to the one that is corruption-proof? Is there something the government is hiding from the public?
“The fact that the government is willing to tell lies against UTAS and even commit plagiarism just to tarnish UTAS, speaks volumes.
“We call on the government to honour its agreement, pay lecturers a living wage and revitalise the infrastructure in our public universities.”