Varsity strike: FG places no value on education

By Ukpono Ukpong

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has said that the reason the strike in the university system is lingering is because the Federal Government has placed little or no value on education in country.

Briefing journalists in Abuja at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, the TUC President, Festus Osifo, said that the Federal Government lacks the will to end the lingering strike in the university system.

He stressed that the prolonged strike is not as a result of lack of finances on the part of government but clearly, the lack of will.

“TUC as a body is here to protect our national interest. We will do everything possible to ensure that we are engage government, and also engage ASUU as well to find an amicable solution.

“You will agree with me that where there is will, there is always a way. Recently the Federal government spent about 1.4 billion naira to buy vehicles and donated it to the Government of Niger Republic. If government is serious, I can tell you that they will resolve this issue of ASUU within 48 hours.

“Go through the budgets and you will see the different budget heads. So, it is the value that is placed on education. The value that is placed on our university system is the reason why we are here today.”

He said that there was no need for government to continue paying for fuel subsidy as the impact is clearly not felt by Nigerians.

Speaking further, he said that the Nigerian government end up subsidising fuel for the entire West Africa region as the products are being smuggled through the porous borders in the country.

The TUC President said that the government should rather use the money meant for fuel subsidy to meet the demands of University-based unions.

“How much do we pay today as far as subsidy? How much of that money actually gets to the masses? How much of that money is actually spent on us? A huge amount a huge portion of it is smuggled around our borders. So it shows that the trillions of Naira we spend on subsidy, a substantial part of it end up in subsidising the entire West Africa sub region. If only the government can close the border or rather secure the border. If that is done, you will notice that the quantity of petroleum product that we consume on a daily basis will reduce.”

Osifo said that the NEC in council strongly oppose the move by the Federal Government to privertise the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Federal hospital.

While describing such move as anti-people, Osifo said that Nigerians has never benefitted from the privatisation done in the past and as such TUC strongly frowns at it.

“As TUC, we take a complete exception to this. The NEC of TUC, frowns at this, because the privatisation that was done in the past, where has it led us?”

He said that the Federal Government will end up selling government assets to friends and cronies.

The NEC in Council further called on President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter if urgency take steps address the security challenges in the country.