The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has described the Federal Government’s promises as cheap, saying that its members would not be swayed by them.
ASUU President, Professor Abiodun Ogunyemi, said this on Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“We have concluded that promises from the government are very cheap. We are not bothered about what promises the government makes now,” he said.
Ogunyemi’s comments come less than 24 hours after the union commenced an industrial action as a result of their grievances with the Federal Government.
According to ASUU, the decision to direct its members across the country to down tools on Sunday was because of poor funding of the nation’s universities.
Read Also: ASUU Commences Indefinite Nationwide Strike
He also decried the reduction in the budget for education in the past few years, stressing that the education sector of any nation should always be given adequate priority.
He said, “There was an inter-ministerial retreat on education where the Minister (of Education) said for a nation to develop, it must earmark not less than 20 per cent to education.
“This year’s budget we have seven per cent, the previous year was seven per cent. If you go back to 2014, it was 12 per cent, 2015 was 11 per cent and it came down to eight per cent in 2016. And in the last two years, the budgetary allocation has been seven per cent.”
Ogunyemi also faulted some governors for denying their states access to the Federal Government’s grants for Universal Basic Education (UBE).
According to him, 17 states of the federation have failed to prioritize education.
