Strike: ASUU Tackles Federal Govt Over N4 Trillion Fuel Subsidy Budget

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has taken a swipe at the Federal Government for allocating N4trn to subsidise petroleum products for Nigerians.

The union accused the government of failing to prioritise the development of university education in the country.

ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said this during his appearance on Sunrise Daily, a breakfast programme on Channels Television on Wednesday.

The ASUU president decried the situation where the government was focusing its attention on fuel subsidies which he said does not exist, rather than showing interest in revamping the nation’s universities.

ASUU had on February 14,2022 announced a four-week total and comprehensive warning strike following the inability of the union and the Federal Government to reach a common ground on the demands of university lecturers.

Some of ASUU’s demands include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, implementation of the re-negotiated 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement and the release of earned allowances for university lecturers.

Others are deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers.

Following the expiration of the initial four weeks of the warning strike, ASUU had gone ahead to declare another eight weeks strike, saying that it was giving the government more time to meet its demands.

Speaking on the programme, Osodeke said: “A government that cannot raise N200 billion to revamp all Nigerian universities and bring them to world standard, doesn’t have money to do that but that same government can raise N4 trillion for fuel subsidy; fuel subsidy and university education, which is more important to any country that wants to move forward?”

“You can raise N4 trillion for fuel subsidy in a year, but you cannot raise N200 billion to fund your education because you don’t have money; it is a priority. You can spend N228 billion to feed children in primary and secondary schools, but you cannot raise N200 billion to fund your universities; it is an issue of priority, that is the problem.”

Osodeke said the government had refused to make any definite move to address the demands of the lecturers since the strike which crippled academic activities across public universities in the country began in February.

According to him, nothing concrete has happened, adding that the federal government had not shown any sign that it was willing to resolve the issues.

The ASUU president said that no concrete resolution was reached despite the series of meetings with the government delegation led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen Chris Ngige.

Osodeke added: “Really, nothing significant has happened since we declared the strike about nine weeks ago, which means that this system (government) is really not interested in anything about education,” Osodeke stated.

“If all universities are shut down for about nine weeks and there is no single comment from the government’s side, it shows that something is really wrong.”