Pupil mortgage invoice, try to abandon public funding of Nigerian universities — ASUU

The Tutorial Workers Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the Nigerian authorities of makes an attempt to ‘systematically’ wash its fingers off the funding of public universities with the introduction of a scholar mortgage invoice by the Nationwide Meeting.

Each chambers of the Nationwide Meeting have handed a scholar mortgage invoice that was first launched to the home by the Speaker of the Home of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, in 2016.

If assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, the federal government could be mandated to determine an training financial institution which the invoice proposes would offer training loans to college students.

However ASUU, in a press release by its President, Emmanuel Osodeke, a Professor of Soil Science, condemned the transfer, describing it as an try to make college training past the attain of poor Nigerians.

Within the assertion launched after its quarterly Nationwide Govt Council (NEC) assembly held on the College of Calabar on the weekend, ASUU claimed the training mortgage being proposed has failed in different nations the place it was launched.

“We discover it troubling that the proponents of the coverage are so desirous to foist it down the throat of Nigerians once they have executed extra to push the working individuals of this nation into poverty by way of sheer incompetence in dealing with the financial fortunes of our nation,” the assertion reads partially.

On wage

The union rejected what it described as the federal government’s “conceited insistence on handing down an award” as an alternative of a bargained wage package deal for its members. It additionally accused the federal government of makes an attempt to show the connection with the employees inito a grasp–slave scenario.

The union additionally condemned the federal government’s continued withholding of the teachers’ salaries for seven and a half months, saying it could not settle for the alleged casualisation of its members’ work by way of the cost of October salaries on a pro-rata foundation.

“The union calls the eye of Nigerians to the lingering problem of renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Settlement which was the preliminary problem that led to the simply suspended strike motion. Extra worrisome is the rising anti-labour posture of the federal government, suggestive of makes an attempt to abrogate the precept of collective bargaining settlement. NEC rejects in totality the federal government’s conceited insistence on handing down an award as an alternative of a bargained wage package deal,” the assertion added.

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ASUU, subsequently, known as on Nigerians to prevail on the federal government to urgently handle all excellent points between it and the union within the curiosity of the scholars and the nation.

“Lastly, NEC appreciates the resilience of our members and their households. Their understanding and perseverance, within the face of hardship and provocation occasioned by authorities’s intransigence and insensitivity, shall be rewarded by posterity.”

Backstory

The commercial dispute between ASUU and the Nigerian authorities, which has resulted in incessant strikes that characterised the nation’s college system has ushered in conversations concerning the funding of the colleges.

Authorities officers have on totally different events acknowledged that the federal government can’t proceed to fund the colleges alone however ASUU has rejected this.

At a latest occasion, the registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Is-haq Oloyede, prompt a mannequin just like the Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage Scheme the place the federal government might help indigent people pay a sure share of the varsity charges after they will need to have subscribed to the initiative.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Instances in partnership with Report for the World, which matches native newsrooms with gifted rising journalists to report on 1-covered points across the globe.