Pressurise FG To Prioritise Education, Not N10,000, ASUU Slams NAPTAN …As NANS Kicks

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has rejected the N10,000 offer proposed by the National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN).
NAPTAN had, last Wednesday, offered to pay N10, 000 per session by every parents whose child is in the university to assist the Federal Government in making more funds available for universities.
“We have submitted a letter to the Office of the Education Minister, seeking an audience where we hope to discuss a proposal.
“We are proposing a sum of N10, 000 per parent every session that will be directly paid to the universities. That will be our own contribution apart from other statutory payments in making more funds available to the universities”, said NAPTAN’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. Ademola Ekundayo.
But reacting to the offer, yesterday, on AriseTV, ASUU’s National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, advised NAPTAN to join forces with the organisation to ensure that Federal Government prioritises education in the country.
Osodeke said, “I think what this association should be doing is to tell the government to perform its function.
“They should meet the president and tell him: Honour your agreements, make education number one priority in the country and use Nigerians money to fund education as it is done in other countries. That should be the pressure coming from that group.
“If you do that the country will take education as number one priority. Then meet National Assembly and ensure that when you are doing a budget look at the budget allocation of countries in Africa, like Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, SouthAfrica, and take that average and allocate to education.
“We can’t be priding ourselves as the giant of Africa and we are the worst in education, such that Nigerian students go to Universities in Benin Republic, Togo, South Africa and nobody from these countries is coming to Nigeria to study.
“If we are the giant, we must perform as giants. Education is number one. My advice is that they should add to the pressure of ASUU to ensure that the government prioritises education and perform its statutory duty of ensuring that Nigerian students have access to education which is their right. That will be more important than this 10,000.
“Parents are already paying whether you like it or not, when we were students, we stayed in hostels subsidized, we were paid bursary for being a student but today all these are gone, parents have taken care of these responsibilities.
“Government should be advised just like our past leaders Obafemi Awolowo, in the South-West, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the way they prioritsed education, our current leaders should go that way. The first set of education was built by these people.”
Similarly, the President, National Association of Nigerian Students, Sunday Ashefon, yesterday, described strike actions in the tertiary education sector in Nigeria as a challenge that administrations of the student body will not be able to resolve.
Ashefon disclosed this during the 40th anniversary of NANS which was held at the National Universities Commission in Abuja.
He said, “Perhaps the tertiary education sector in Nigeria is faced with one of the strongest tests in our history in the last few years. We have witnessed the total collapse of the sector as a result of the incessant strike.
“This challenge alone is bigger than what any NANS administration could resolve. However, our nation’s education system is on the brink and the entire nation must rise to the rescue. Where we go from here as a nation is dependent on how we collectively gather the crackers of the collapsing education system and rebuild it together as a nation.
“Nigeria does not belong here, our tertiary education system does not belong here and this is already taking its tore on the nation’s economy, security, and faith of the young people in the nation and its education system. We all must rise to the rescue.
“As we celebrate today, let us remember that we are only gathered here because education is part of our story and life, we must therefore do all it takes to ensure this part of our national life does not become a story of the past”.
NANS is the umbrella body of all Nigerian students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
The body has come under fire by stakeholders who have accused it of not pressuring the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities to find lasting solutions to incessant strikes in Nigerian universities.