The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Sunday tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to use education to solve poverty problem in the country.
ASUU described the statement credited to the President, citing education as a way to end poverty, as a political statement.
The Chairman, ASUU, University of Ibadan, Prof Deji Omole, on Sunday, in Ibadan, said Nigerians did not need the President to tell them what had been proven by serious countries as a way to edge out poverty.
The ASUU leader, who expressed pessimism about the ability of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to transform the education sector, stated that Adamu was not different from his employer.
Omole recalled that Adamu had promised to declare a state of emergency in the education sector but refused to live up to his words.
He said, “He is back to a familiar terrain; we are also in that same terrain. He spent more than three years in his first term and made so many political statements which were never implemented.
“This administration has demonstrated its hatred for education by constantly reducing the budgetary allocation to education. Most of their policies are anti-university.
“For example, in UI today, it’s almost impossible to recruit new workers; meanwhile, people are dying as a result of excessive workload and people are retiring and you are not employing new people.
“We all know, all developed nations have been able to solve their problems through education and that is why we have always been engaging different governments that the only antidote to poverty is putting adequate attention to educating the masses.”
Punch
Comments are closed.