ASUU blames IBB for decay in education sector

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has
blamed former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida for the current problems bedeviling
the nation’s education sector.
The union believed that the former military
President presided over what it described as
the dictatorship of the International Monetary
Fund and Structural Adjustment Programme,
whose policies were used to “kill public
schools” in the late 1980s.
The union, which said its four-month-old
strike would continue until government shows
genuine commitment to the 2009 agreement,
also called on government to reject “the
reintroduction of SAP through the back door.”
The chairman of ASUU, Obafemi Awolowo
University, Prof. Ade Akinola, in a statement
on Monday, said the government should show
patriotism and ensure that the university
teachers returned to work.
He said, “Patriotism demands that the
government should reject the dictate of the
international financial conglomerate (IMF) and
the reintroduction of SAP through the back
door, under the superintendence of the
Minister of Finance, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala.
“Otherwise, why the rush to imbibe this
strange doctrine that basic education is what
Nigeria needs? The implication of this is that
government should minimally spend or
disengage from spending on tertiary
education. Yet, we are in the age where
knowledge is the difference. Wilful collapse of
public institutions and subordination of
national interest to private one must stop.
“ASUU insists that the strike continues until
government shows genuine commitment to
the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement as reinforced
by the MoU of January 24, 2012 as it will not
be part of this deliberate decimation of public
university system.”
The OAU-ASUU branch chairman said
government’s patriotism became necessary
“to stop this cycle of institutional collapse.”