ASUU willing to meet with Tinubu administration on education issues, but with conditions

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed its willingness to meet with the incoming administration of Senator Bola Tinubu to find a permanent solution to the ongoing faceoff with the government. However, the union has laid down a condition that the government must show determination to handle education issues with the seriousness they deserve.

The National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said that if the Tinubu administration would go the same way as its predecessor, then the final nail would have been put on the coffin of tertiary education in the country.

Osodeke said, “We can meet and are ready to meet with the incoming government if they would show more seriousness and willingness to accord education the pride of place it deserves. They just have to go many steps higher than what we have now. We hope they would see the need to give education top priority and save it from collapse.”

On the steps to resolve the issue of withheld salaries and other matters in contention with the outgoing government, Osodeke noted that no significant progress had been made. The matter is still dragging at the court, and their next hearing date is May 2 this year.

Regarding the N320 billion intervention fund the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) said it would release to higher institutions this year, Osodeke said there was nothing spectacular about it. He noted that the government had not said anything about the N470 billion it promised to include in the 2023 budget, and the year is almost halfway now.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students, Joint Campus Committee (NANS JCC), Ondo Axis, has said it would report any misuse of the N320 billion special intervention fund to be given tertiary institutions by TETFund to anti-graft agencies. NANS Ondo JCC is setting up a task force to ensure that the funds are not diverted and mismanaged. The committee will be engaging the EFCC and ICPC should they suspect any financial misappropriation of the said fund by any school management.