TheCable

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency on the education sector.

The group made the call during its national executive council meeting which was held at the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, on Monday.

In a statement signed by Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU president, the group lamented the failure of the federal government to declare a state of emergency on the education sector as canvassed by Adamu Adamu, minister of education, in 2017.

Ogunyemi said such period could have been dedicated to addressing the challenges in the education sector.

“Among other things, the period of ’emergency’ should have been devoted to squarely addressing the place of education in Nigeria’s developmental aspirations; the problem of underfunding of education, from pre-primary to the university level which, in the last four years, hovered between 6% and 8%; the rot and decay in existing facilities; expansion plans as against the current haphazard establishment leading to mushrooming of educational institutions; and incentives and welfare for workers in the education sector,” the statement read.

“ASUU calls on government to deliver ‘change’ in education through an immediate declaration of State of emergency in the sector.”

The group lamented the slow pace of the renegotiation of the FGN-ASUU agreement of 2009.

Ogunyemi said ASUU also expressed “strong disappointment with the failure of the Federal Government to keep to timelines attached to the setting up of Visitation Panels to all Federal Universities and mainstreaming the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) as agreed in the 7th February, 2019 Memorandum of Action (MoA).”

“In the same vein, ASUU-NEC frowns at government’s propensity for breaching agreements and memoranda signed with the Union,” it read.

“In particular, the Union notes with dissatisfaction that the renegotiation of the FGN-ASUU Agreement of 2009, which commenced way back in March 2017, has not been concluded for more than two years owing to hiccups created largely by government representatives on the Renegotiation Committee.

“We hereby call on the federal government to urgently address these and other related issues in the best interest of Nigerian public universities.”

ASUU also called on the government to address issues of the economy and security, adding that Nigerians are living in “excruciating poverty” which has forced many to “join the increasing army of global migrants and wanderers in search of elusive greener pastures.”