The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to go on strike until justice is served in Nigeria's postsecondary educational institutions.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the president of ASUU, announced this on Wednesday by criticizing the Tertiary Education Trust Fund's (TETFund) proposal to include private universities in the projects it funds.
During a two-day interactive session in Abuja between the TETFund and all unions of beneficiary institutions, Osodeke expressed the views of ASUU.
According to Osodeke, the decision to include private institutions in the fund's programme will result in the growth of low-quality private universities.
He demands that TETFund put more effort into improving its project monitoring system, pointing out that while some of the beneficiary institutions receive the same funding, their performance levels differ.
He advocated for the elimination of the "stakeholders fund" and called for fines against underperforming institutions.
ASUU will continue to embark on strike until the right thing is done in our tertiary institutions. Stakeholders fund should be abolished,” Osodeke averred.
Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, stated in his speech that the interactive session was designed as a proactive engagement in light of the current issues facing the subsector.
According to Echono, the involvement was also intended to maintain the tertiary education system's continuous expansion and progress.
He emphasized that in order to make the situation better, people must constantly challenge and interact with one another.
It is our fervent hope that this interactive session will provide an enabling environment for us to understand some of our challenges and difficulties in the delivery of quality education in our institutions.“Thereby making meaningful contribution to the successful execution of the objective of the fund.“As you all know our primary mandate is to rehabilitate, restore and consolidate tertiary education in Nigeria, using funding alongside project management.“The session is also expected to serve as a platform to discuss and mitigate incidences of industrial disputes in the tertiary education sector and look at ways to prevent and avoid their occurrences,” he said.
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