Borrow money to settle ASUU, fund education – TUC tells FG

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has asked the Federal Government of Nigeria to go ahead and borrow money to settle the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), end the seven-month-long strike and generally fund education.

TUC told the government to use part of the money it intends to borrow to finance the mid-term budget to fund the demands of the university lecturers.

The union president, Festus Osifo, at a media interaction with the Labour Writers Association of Nigeria in Lagos, said that government should use part of the money earmarked for infrastructure to fund education.

Osifo said since the Federal Government was proposing to borrow between N10 to N11 trillion to finance the nation’s midterm budget, it should take out of it to fund the demands of ASUU.

“We have been borrowing money to solve our infrastructure problem, no money that we borrow that can be compared to human capital development.

“If we don’t fix our education, it means we are joking. Human resources is key. Today, lots of Nigerians are going out in droves, that is brain drain. Our government must sit down with ASUU to resolve the crisis, if it entails borrowing, let them do it.

READ: Three things government must do to immediately end ASUU strike – Osodeke

“It is not our advocacy; the government had already made a plan. Government should take part of the money to solve the problem of ASUU.

“If the money to be borrowed is to complete the Second Niger bridge or railway line, the question is who wants to use them? Those sectors are not more important than education.

“We must get our priority right and government needs to put on its thinking cap. In a civilised society, government is made up of serious-minded people. The common man on the street is more creative than the people elected to public office,” Osifo said.

He maintained that the easiest way for Nigeria to move out of its present economic logjam is to fund education, warning that failure to do that would be devastating.

The TUC president lamented that the ASUU strike had kept students home long enough to end a session in the university, with no solution on sight.

Osifo, also the president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), lamented the brain drain in the country, saying government that failed to fix education is a joker.

“We don’t know when the strike will be called off, all we are hearing is blame game. The president has the obligation to resolve this issue,” he said, urging government to get its priority right by funding education.