ASUU president has alleged that two presidential candidates have plans to privatise public universities.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Wednesday, alleged that two presidential candidates are planning to sell the federal universities in Nigeria.
Also: ASUU Reveals Reason FG Isn’t Interested In Funding Public Universities
Newsonline reports that the President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed the latest development while speaking in Makurdi during the special congress of ASUU, in honour of Professor Richard Kimbir, the outgoing Vice Chancellor of Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi, (JOSTUM) held at the Science lecture theatre
The ASUU president said two presidential candidates, whose names were withheld, have plans of privatizing the universities or initiating student loans.
Osodeke said the presidential candidates will soon unveil the agenda to privatize federal universities through Public Private Partnership, PPP, or settle for the option of student loan with five percent interest, Tribune reports.
He said: “If you don’t know, they are planning to sell the universities (federal universities) through Public Private Partnership. This is being planned by two presidential candidates and the other plan is to initiate student loan at 5 percent interest.”
Speaking against Nigerian universities partaking in student loan programmes, the ASUU president claimed that such a decision is not in the right direction.
In his words: “In Nigeria where you have graduates that can not get job for several years and by the time you spend 30 years the loan will run to N40 million.
After we are done with federal government, we will come back to the management of funds in our universities because some of the universities have problem of poor management of funds.
“As University, we don’t know how money is spent, how many of the universities have budget. The federal government, national assembly have their budget but this is not so in some universities. We are going to fight that soon”
FG, ASUU in fresh showdown over ‘no work no pay’ policy
The Federal Government and are caught in another showdown as the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has insisted the government will not pay full salaries to lecturers despite their ongoing nationwide protest.
ASUU had on Monday begun protests across the country to press home their demand for full pay after the Federal Government failed to pay them for the eight-month period the lecturers were on strike.
However, Adamu, who spoke with State House correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday, insisted the protesting lecturers would not be paid for work not done in line with ‘No work no pay’ policy.
