The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has said that Federal Government cannot totally stop funding universities.
This was said by the president of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, during an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast show, on Thursday, September 13, noting that the Constitution states that the Federal Government must fund public universities.
He also reacted to a report where the Minister of Education Prof. Tahir Mamman, was quoted to have said that the Federal Government will initiate new ways of funding tertiary education by granting full autonomy to universities to explore new sources of financing their activities.
ASUU president said, “There is no way the Federal Government of Nigeria would say they would not fund public universities because it is there in the law. It is there in the Constitution, look at section 18 of the Constitution, it says ‘university, primary and secondary are free.
“The only problem is that it is not judicable, that’s the only problem so I said I don’t think this government from what we have seen is going to say we are going to hands off from university. But the autonomy is here, ignited in year 2003 if we follow that law and allow it to run without interference from the bureaucrats, the university system would be fine.”
Osekode also said that if Nigeria commits greater allocation to education, the university will have enough funds to run its activities.
