A former attorney general of IMO statusChukwuma-Machukwu Ume called for better investment in education to ensure the future of young Nigerians.
Nigeria’s Chief Advocate and Rapporteur, Victims of Persecution, made the appeal in an open letter to relevant government officials and institutions about the prolonged strike by members of the University Academic Staff Union (ASUU).
He said that the nation must make a conscious change from talk to a functional education system in Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
“Suffice it to say that, today, you are one of the few people that providence has positioned to contribute to the destiny of Nigeria and that of our children, and this can only be achieved through a conscious diversion of our culture from mouth to mouth. out to the functional. education in our tertiary institutions,” his open letter dated June 7, 2022, read in part.
The letter was addressed to include the Secretary of Government of the Federation, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Labor and Productivity, the Executive Secretary of the National Trade Union Commission (CNU) and the Presidents of the Education Commissions of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives. (Tertiary).
The rest are the National President of ASUU, the President of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, the Secretary of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State Universities (COPSU), and the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
ASUU strike
ASUU and other university workers’ unions have been on strike closing Nigeria’s public universities since February.
The unions’ demands, among other things, include better funding for the nation’s public tertiary institutions and better welfare for their members.
Although the government has released 34 billion naira for the payment of consequential adjustments to the minimum wage from 2019, ASUU maintains that it will remain on strike until its main demands are met.
Ume, who expressed concern about ASUU’s ongoing strike, said the union had gone on strike no fewer than 16 times since 1999 to demand better welfare.
This, he said, has disrupted “much-needed academic programs for students.”
“The result is clear: most of our young people in tertiary institutions are overdue to become half minds,” the lawyer stated.
‘Shame’
Ume, who described ASUU’s “repetitive strikes” as “a source of national embarrassment,” blamed the Nigerian ruling class for the problem.
“With the interests of the children of the ruling class taken care of, the need to ensure that our educational system reaches a good level is relegated to the background.
“This is the irony of the dichotomy of the Nigerian rulers with the Nigerian electorate and population.”
He regretted that for years, Nigeria has allocated a small percentage of its annual budget to the education sector, well below the 26 percent of the annual national budget recommended by UNESCO.
“In fact, the above does not bode well. Suffice it to say that the most direct way to stop the growth of any society is to blur the educational system.
“Is Nigeria substituting education for violence? Soon there could be more guns in Nigeria than books and more kidnapping bushes than libraries,” she claimed.
Bill to ‘save the education sector’
He added that his organization, Victims of Persecution, drafted a National Interest (Education) Bill in 2009 to prevent children and spouses of political office holders in Nigeria from attending any foreign academic institution.
He said the bill would save Nigeria’s education system.
“It is our intention to rekindle the flame of this bill until it becomes part of our principle of political construction and good governance,” he added.
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