Civil Society Organizations, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities, on Monday presented their own mid-term report on the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and concluded that the government scored low on education, health, transport and agriculture.
At the meeting were the ASUU, Zero Corruption Coalition, Coalition to Save Education and Centre for Advanced Social Sciences, among others.
The ASUU President, Dr. Issa Faggae, who spoke at the event organized by Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group in Abuja, accused the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank of imposing failed theories on Nigeria.
Comparing Nigerian education system with that of United Kingdom, Faggae said increased tuition did not yield desired results in UK, wondering why government was always thinking about increasing tuition fee.
He said, “It seems the IMF and World Bank are forcing on us theories that have failed in other countries simply to ensure that even if we have growth in education it must be stunted growth. We have not improved access and quality in education; clearly the delivery is nothing to write home about.”
The ASUU boss also accused the National Universities Commission of deviating from its objectives of ensuring standard education in tertiary institutions into organizing conferences, adding, “There are violations of national act of education that NUC finds difficult to address.”
Citing the Ebonyi State University which has been privatized by the state government, Faggae lamented that the NUC had failed to act even when it was clear that the action violated the laws setting up the university.
He said, “It is a clear violation of governance structure as enshrined in the law establishing that university. The NUC finds it difficult to do anything about that. NUC plays a key role in violating the provisions of the Universities Miscellaneous Amendment Act of 2003. The NUC is not working towards ensuring quality education.”
On the insecurity in the North where state of emergency rule had been imposed on Yobe, Adamawa and Borno States, Faggae said the approach by the government “to solve insecurity is not going to solve the problem. You can kill people, more people will come up. Unless you put a solid structure to address the socio-economic ills in the country, we will continue to have problems of insecurity,” he said.
Besides, the union said the setting up of 12 new universities by Jonathan was “a political agenda”, which “will promote disunity in the country. It is going to be a disservice to the nation.
“Government is providing universities at our backyard. If my son can attend a university 10 km behind my house, he will not be encouraged to move from Kano to Otuoke for university education. Where a child lives robs off on his orientation about life.”
Faggae also accused the government of abusing the laws establishing Tertiary Education Trust Fund by overburdening it with mandates outside its intervention role.
Comrade Jaiye Gaskiya of the United Action for Democracy lamented that since 2010, the allocation to the health sector as a percentage of the annual federal budget has continued to decline;
“It was approximately 4% [N162bn of N4.078tn] in 2010; 8% [N339bn of 4.226tn] in 2011; 6% [N283bn of 4.749tn] in 2012; and 6% [N279bn of N4.987tn] in 2013. The more distressing part of the expenditure profile is that capital votes have been consistently below 25% of health sector budget with the figure being 20% [N56bn of N279bn] in 2013”
On Aviation, the President of the Public Interest Lawyers League, Abdul Mahmud, said “the poor aesthetic designs of some of the airports, particularly the Abuja airport, give fillips to the criticisms that the manner in which the redesigned contracts were awarded, was all but competitive and transparent. The new look Abuja airport isn’t close to what a modern world class airport should be”.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government on Monday condemned the mobilisation of unqualified students for the compulsory one year National Youths Service Corps scheme in the country.
Minister of Education, Ruqqayatu Rufai, who spoke at a meeting with Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities in Abuja, stressed that the mobilisation of part-time students as well as students from unaccredited programmes would no longer be tolerated, adding that erring institutions will be sanctioned.
The minister also lamented the lukewarm attitude of many universities to the directive on staff and students audit, saying that the response had not been satisfactory.
She also lamented that the issue of award of honorary degrees to undeserving personalities has become a source of embarrassment to government, adding that Governing Councils should uphold university tradition.
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