Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has asked the Nigerian government to subtract N200 billion from the N4 trillion set aside for gasoline subsidies.
In an appearance on Channels TV on Tuesday morning, Osodeke claimed the government has tackled the issue of gasoline subsidy with a budget of N4 trillion while ignoring university education difficulties.
According to the ASUU President, even if the government pulled only N200 billion from the N4 trillion budget to address the problems of its members, it would still have N3.8 trillion.
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He also urged the Nigerian government to put education ahead of petroleum subsidies, claiming that Nigerian academics could supply all of the remedies required to help the country recover.
He claimed that it took only three months for Nigerian institutions to build the University Transparent and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which outperformed the international Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System by 97.3 percent (IPPIS).
While large sums of money were spent on IPPIS, he claimed that the money would have been better spent on Nigerian institutions, and he encouraged the government to always target Nigerian universities with finding answers to recognized problems.
Osodeke said, “It is always very funny, that the government who cannot raise N200billion to revamp all Nigeria universities annually, to world standards. The same government can raise N4trillion for fuel subsidies. Fuel subsidy and Nigerian education; which is more important to any country that wants to move forward?
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“You can raise a budget to make N4trillion for subsidies a year, but you cannot raise N200billion to fund your education where you don’t have the infrastructure. You can spend N228billion to feed children in primary or secondary schools. But you cannot raise this fund for your university; it is an issue of priority. That is the problem.
“If you remove N200billion from N4trillion, to fund your universities, you still have N3.8trillion for fuel subsidy.”
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