The Save Public Education Campaign, a non-governmental organization (NGO), has announced that it will lead a national mass protest to end the Academic Staff Union of Universities' incessant strikes (ASUU).
Ms Vivian Bello, the group's convener, announced this at a press conference in Abuja yesterday.
Bello stated that the plight of Nigerian children reaches into every nook and cranny of the country, and that women are disproportionately affected, adding that only people's will could defeat attacks on public education.
“Education is non-negotiable as there is no alternative to it. The insecurity we are experiencing today is traceable to the failure of the education sector.
“We have watched with total awe and abhorrence the near total collapse of tertiary education in Nigeria.
“Distressing statistics show that ASUU has been on strike for a total of over 725 days, since the beginning of this administration over issues that bother largely on poor welfare, university autonomy and lack of adequate funding for universities.
“When tallied inversely, this amounts to an entire two and half years’ loss, in the educational lives of innocent Nigerian children/students in public universities across the country.
“It did not end there; The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, ASUP and COEASU are all also currently on strike on similar issues as ASUU.
“We all can see clearly, that this is an all-round collapse of the tertiary education in the country,” she said.
Bello also urged the government to take the necessary action, attention, and resources to address the strike in the country's tertiary education.
She expressed concern about the 2022 budgetary allocation of N1.29 trillion or 7.9 percent for education, citing UNESCO's standard recommendation of a minimum of 26%.
As a result, she stated that the meager allocation to the sector highlighted the lip service paid to education, the impact of which was now directly visible in the teeming mass of young people involved in crime.
“We make bold to say that if government will change strategy and invest a greater proportion of the resources it is expending in the insecurity campaign in providing robust, efficient and quality educational system, within a calculated period of time, insecurity will gradually die a natural death.
“In order words, we submit boldly that education can be a veritable panacea to insecurity in Nigeria.
“In the light of the foregoing therefore, we unequivocally demanding that the negotiation process of the strike action, including as led by the Prof. Nimi Briggs committee, be immediately concluded and signed.
“The IPPIS has been specifically described and pointed out with evidence by the striking academic unions as problematic, inconsistent and fraudulent.
“The platform should therefore be set aside while the proposed more credible alternatives; UTAS, U3PS deployed accordingly,” she added.
