The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it will press on with its ongoing industrial action while the Federal Government makes the money required to fulfil its obligation to tertiary education in the country.
Immediate past Chairman of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka branch of ASUU, Prof. Aloysius Okolie made the assertion in Enugu State on Friday.
Warning the government not to oversee a total collapse of tertiary education in the country, Okolie argued that no country has ever succeeded in attaining economic and technological advancement without huge investments in education.
“The National Assembly and some executive members are paid jumbo salaries but when it comes to education funding the government has no money,” he said. “How will the country be able to achieve its vision 20:2020 of being among the 20 leading economies if the education sector is not well-funded?”
He called on students and parents to support the union, saying the industrial action would improve the standard of learning and in universities.
“It is unreliable that in some universities student receive lectures under the trees and in stadium,” he said, lamenting that nooks, laboratory equipment in university libraries and laboratories are outdated while some politicians and government officials are building houses within and outside the country and buying fleets of exotic cars.
