NANS Threatens To Shut Down Private Universities Over ASUU Strike.

The National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS) yesterday, protested in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State
capital, and threatened to shut down activities in
the private universities in the country if the Federal
Government failed to comply with the demands of
the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
and the strike lingered.
The students who displayed several placards with
various inscriptions, lambasted the Federal
Government for its failure to honour the agreement
it entered into with ASUU since 2009.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Asafon
Sunday, Director of Action and Mobilisation NANS,
South–West, claimed between 2000 and 2011 the
Nigerian government earned about N48.48 trillion
from the sale of oil alone, against N3.10 trillion
earned between 1979 and 1999
He said the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS,
in 2012 financial year alone generated N5.12 trillion
from tax paid by the masses.
According to him: “With this tremendous upswing in
the revenue at the disposal of the Nigerian
government, one would have expected such to
translate to commensurate improvement in the
quality of Nigeria’s public education as well as
other social services.”
He condemned the refusal of Federal Government to
budget a reasonable amount of money to education
sector as recommended by UNESCO which is 26
per cent of the country’s total budget.
Sunday noted that some countries with smaller
Gross Domestic Product, GDP, like Ghana, Cote
d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco and Botswana had
budgetary allocations to education sector as follow,
31 per cent,20 per cent,23 per cent ,17.7 per cent
and 19 per cent respectively to 8.5 per cent that
Nigeria government had budgeted for education in
2013.
Also speaking, Steven Adara ,a student leader from
Ekiti State University, EKSU , lamented that
government officials and prominent Nigerians were
not bothered about the crisis in the public
universities because their children were in private
schools overseas.
According to him: “We will mobilise and disrupt
academic activities in the private universities
because it is the sons and daughters of the rich
that are in these schools.”