Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has decried the strike action embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
He said painfully, it was coming under the All Progressives Congress (APC) government that five years ago claimed to have solutions to the myriad of problems besetting the country and her citizenry.
He insisted that this strike classifies the abysmal failure of the Buhari’s government, especially where it concerns matters of public education.
He disclosed that Buhari should be held responsible for the industrial action that has lasted for six months.
He noted that anybody who says ASUU should call off the strike without resolving the bottleneck has no love for the children of Nigeria.
His words: “When I was a student at the University of Ife, the government said there was no money and ASUU said no problem, we will find the government the money and ASUU did find the government the money.
“Government is now stealing the money which ASUU found. By law if we abide to UNESCO, we are supposed to spend 26 per cent of our money on education.
“Now, the government wasn’t doing that and ASUU went out of its way to find money from the private sector. So, this money they are quarreling over is not government money.
“Is money coming from the private sector paid into the Education Trust Fund which the government overnight like a thief in the night amended the decree and put it under the ministry of education.
“In our time both at the federal and in Delta State, we have agreed that education money will not be under the ministry of education. Education money will be under an independent trust.
“If Kenneth Gbagi was not running for governor, he will be one of those who will be an accountable trustees of the Education Trust Fund.
“We will put prominent people in the society who have seen it all, who are not thieves, who will now keep that money and release the money to the governing council of the universities.
“ASUU is not asking for too much. Anybody who say ASUU should call off the strike without resolving this issue has no love for the children of Nigeria”.
He put the blame on the government, urging the Buhari-Osinbajo government to quickly and speedily find means of resolving the strike so that academic activities could resume soonest.
He insisted that ASUU is not asking for too much, as the money causing the strike were money ASUU got from the private sector.
