The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have condemned the reported promise of the leadership of the House of Representatives to fast-track the re-establishment of the National Education Bank (NEB) in the country.
ASUU said it viewed the move with strong suspicion that the Nigerian ruling class could contemplate bringing back a project which collapsed after about eight (8) years (1993-2000) of its experimentation on account of corruption, maladministration and government’s irresponsiveness.
The Union National President, Biodun Ogunyemi who spoke while briefing newsmen on the outcome of its national executive council meeting of the Union held at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta said ASUU is aware that the idea was borrowed from the Euro-American setting which the Nigerian ruling class has adopted their perfect model.
"But, in all honesty, can they compare the Nigerian situation with the Western world in terms of guaranteed opportunities for paid employment?"
"Even in the climes where the idea of students’ loan through Education Bank was borrowed, it has been seriously reviewed because of the attendant consequences of massive default"
The Union said "in repayment; including psychiatric cases and suicide. ASUU-NEC restated her rejection of the re-introduction of the National Education Bank and shall use all legitimate means to resist it in the long interest of Nigerian youth and the Nation".
Reacting on the unfortunate death of three students of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, ASUU opined that the incident is avoidable if necessary infrastructures are put in place in tertiary institutions.
"ASUU was alarmed about the initial reports on the avoidable death of three students of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, on 5th August, 2019. NEC reviewed the incident leading to the loss of three (3) students as a result of a collapsed bridge linking the students’ hostels with the lecture area and regretted that it could happen in a 21st century university campus".
"ASUU calls for a full-scale investigation into the immediate and remote causes of the incident".
Anyone found culpable in the ugly incident should be made to face the full weight of the law.
Commenting on the Xenophobic attack. the ASUU national President urged leaders in the country to fix the country to stem unnecessary migration, also tasked them to tap into the country’s intellectual community for socio-economic policies capable of transforming Nigeria.
He also declared that no country would ever witness transformation without a solid education, noting that scholars who are regarded as a catalyst to development had been shunned by the government in Nigeria.
“There are two dimensions to xenophobic attacks; there are pull factors and there are push factors. There is a problem if migration is not two-way; it is means you are more dependent rather than being mutually dependent.
The situation we had seen in Nigeria is that the movement that we do is more of push factor by our own environment here.
“We are conscious of a position of weakness in which poor leadership has put this country. We have the resources to compete and beat South Africa on any ground such that the respect would be mutual. But today, they see us as dependent, inferior and people they could just discard with.
“If you go to South African universities, maybe, 50 per cent of their top-notch scholars are people from Nigeria or tutored by Nigerians.
“The academic and intellectual community in South Africa respect Nigerians. But, when you now start to compete with their income section, there is bound to be conflict.
“If we fix our country, South Africa will respect us. We lost our respect the moment we can no longer cater for our citizens. Even if we bring back people from South Africa and we don’t have plans for them, they will still find a way of going back.
“ASUU believes that Nigeria is not inferior to any country in this world; what we only need to do is to get our act right. Fix our country – even leading countries in the Western world will respect us. We remain dependent and that is why we call Nigeria dependent peripheral rentier country. Nigeria operates at the fringes of global economy.
“If we have a country that does not respect its intellectual community, that country will never witness what we call transformation because education is the catalyst to development; but we shun education scholars here,” Ogunyemi submitted.
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