The Academic Staff Union of Universities said it worried about the perceived lack of interest displayed by the Federal Govt in the quality of Education in Nigeria.
ASUU said that the letters of notification of strike, which it wrote to the Ministries of Education and Labour and Employment, have not been replied to by either ministry since Monday, November the 5th when it resumed its strike.
The ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who was on TVC News breakfast show wants the government to negotiate with the union and establish an education bank for proper funding of Universities.
He said, “We wrote to inform the two ministries that we had resumed our strike. We also told them we suspended the strike initially in September 2017 and we decided to resumed it because the Federal Government failed to implement the key areas in the Memorandum of Action that we both signed.
“We wrote to the ministries of education and labour and employment. They signed the copies we gave them, but they have not written to say that they saw our letters.
“The logic is clear to us in ASUU. The political class in Nigeria has strangled primary and secondary education in Nigeria. For example, as many as 24 states have failed to access the Universal Basic Education Commission funds for 2018. That has left UBEC with over N60bn that states failed to access.
“In the last two years, the government has been giving seven per cent to education in the budget. Suddenly this year, they woke up and said they would declare a state of emergency in the education sector and give 15 per cent. Who are they deceiving? This is an election season and anybody can promise anything.
“So what our union has concluded is that the ruling class in Nigeria – not only about this government but consistently over the years – they don’t care about the education of the poor,” Ogunyemi stated.
We actually too bored living at home. Please and please, we urge government to intervent in this issue.