Students threaten to shut private varsities over ASUU strike

* UNIVERSITY students under the umbrella of
National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS,
yesterday, took to the streets in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti
State capital, calling on the Federal Government
to accede to the demands of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities, ASUU.
They equally threatened to shut down activities in
the private universities in the country should the
crisis linger on.
The students who displayed several placards with
various inscriptions, lambasted the Federal
Government for its failure to honour the
agreement it entered into with ASUU since 2009.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Asafon
Sunday, Director of Action and Mobilisation NANS,
South–West, claimed between 2000 and 2011 the
Nigerian government earned about N48.48 trillion
from the sale of oil alone, against N3.10 trillion
earned between 1979 and 1999
He said the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS,
in 2012 financial year alone generated N5.12
trillion from tax paid by the masses.
According to him: “With this tremendous upswing
in the revenue at the disposal of the Nigerian
government, one would have expected such to
translate to commensurate improvement in the
quality of Nigeria’s public education as well as
other social services.”
He condemned the refusal of Federal Government
to budget a reasonable amount of money to
education sector as recommended by UNESCO
which is 26 per cent of the country’s total budget.
Sunday noted that some countries with smaller
Gross Domestic Product, GDP, like Ghana, Cote
d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco and Botswana had
budgetary allocations to education sector as
follow, 31 per cent,20 per cent,23 per cent ,17.7
per cent and 19 per cent respectively to 8.5 per
cent that Nigeria government had budgeted for
education in 2013.
Also speaking, Steven Adara ,a student leader
from Ekiti State University, EKSU , lamented that
government officials and prominent Nigerians
were not bothered about the crisis in the public
universities because their children were in private
schools overseas.
According to him: “We will mobilise and disrupt
academic activities in the private universities
because it is the sons and daughters of the rich
that are in these schools.” –
VanguardNGR