President Muhammadu Buhari has chided the Academic Staff Union of Universities members across the country over the ongoing strike in the country.
The union has been on strike for over seven months.
The president who spoke during the 4th national summit on diminishing corruption in the public sector, held at the State House Conference Centre, Aso Rock, maintained that corruption undermines educational policies in the country.
Other dignitaries present at the event organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, with the theme ‘Corruption and the Education Sector’, were its Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; the Minister for Education, Adamu Adamu; and the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega.
The president claimed that University lecturers were complicit in undermining the government’s investment in the educational sector.
“Incessant strikes, especially by unions in the tertiary education sector, often imply that government is grossly underfunding education, but I must say that corruption in the education system from basic level to the tertiary level has been undermining our investment in the sector, and those who go on prolonged strikes on flimsy reasons are no less complicit,” he said.
He added that the 1999 Constitution places a premium on education by placing it on the Concurrent List, thereby laying the responsibilities of budgeting and underwriting qualitative education on both the Federal and State Governments, stating that the total education budget for each year is therefore a reflection of both federal and state budgets and should be viewed with other financial commitments in their totality.
“The allocation to education in the federal budget should not be considered via allocation to the Federal Ministry of Education and also academic institutions alone, but should include allocation to the Universal Basic Education, transfers to TETFUND, and refund from the Education Tax Pool Account to TETFUND, etc.
“I am aware that the aggregate education budget in all the 36 states of the Federation and that of the Federal Government, combined with the internally generated revenues of the educational institutions themselves are also a subject that requires the attention of critics of government funding of education,” he said.
