The president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Prof. Emmanuel Oshodeke, has revealed that the 2024 budgetary allocation for the education sector was grossly inadequate.
Addressing the press on Monday 11th December 2023, Prof. Emmanuel Oshodeke, stated that during the campaign and election earlier this year, President Bola Tinubu pledged to increase the budgetary allocation for the Education sector to at least 15 per cent or over.
He said that ASUU was dispirited when the 2024 education budget was announced to be N2.18tr or 7.9 per cent of the budget. The ASUU president emphasized that it was the same figure during the Buhari government, maintaining that if the budget was not increased, not much progress would be made in the sector.
The University Don called on the government to meet with the cabinet members and increase the budget to 15 percent or more.
Oshodeke disclosed that if nothing was done to improve on the budgetary allocation, members of the union would be mobilized for an indefinite strike beginning from next year.
“With this seven per cent education budget, nothing will change in the sector, it is just as we had during Buhari’s time. Tinubu during his campaign promised to increase the education budget but nothing”.
“However, there is still a chance for him, to change. But if no improvement on this and our other demands, by next year, we will mobilize our people and we can’t stay like this because Oyo State has 15 per cent and Enugu State budgeted 32 per cent for education, but FG is giving less than eight per cent”. He reiterated.
Also reacting, the National president, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Dr Anderson Ezeibe, also stated that it was discouraging to see the allocation followed the same trend as in the past administration.
Speaking on the spate of japa syndrome, the ASUU president stated that the trend has led to an overwhelming brain drain in the Nigerian university system. He advised the government to increase the salaries of lecturers, pay the backlog of Earned Allowance and salaries withheld.
“For you to be well-ranked, you have to get lecturers all over the world to come lecture in your system. We pay the least remuneration to professors, globally. Professors in Nigeria earn around $200 to $300 a month and when such a professor moves to Rwanda, he earns $3000.
“The government should allow universities to run on its own, they should sign the agreement with Nimi Briggs. They can do all these if there is willpower.” He added.
With this development, students across public universities in the country may just prepare their minds for yet another chunk of industrial action as they await resumption to commence the next academic session.
