Nigerian don decries cut in budget allocation for education

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi’s displeasure concerning the reduction of the budget allocation to the education sector has been reported.The don made his statement on Thursday while on a courtesy call on the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Mr Ayuba Wabba in Abuja.With reduction, Prof Ogunyemi held that such action could destroy the nation’s educational system. He said the reduction in education funding from 11 to eight percent will have negative effect on the system. “About six per cent was proposed in 2017; about four per cent was given at the end of the day.“The decline will also destroy the country because destroying the educational system of a nation means destroying the nation,’’ he stated.Prof Ogunyemi said education has taken the back seat in the society because political officers own private universities to the disadvantage of government universities.“They build their own universities, and they do not care about government universities. The moment they destroyed government universities, Nigeria will have none again, because everything has been privatized,” he decried.He held that the union always engage government on finance and provision of facilities to encourage quality education capable of bringing development to the country.However, Prof Ogunyemi was dissatisfied with the political class, who rarely recognized the role of scholarship and funding in the development of the system. He further said they are more concerned with amassing the nation’s wealth instead of catering for its basic needs hence, he canvassed for synergy between Nigerians and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the fight for suitable funding of education sector.His words of appreciation went to the labour group for its assistance and intervention during the six months strike.In his words, the NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, identified the major role played by education in the development of national economy.Wabba, however, regretted the leaders’ action, whom he said benefitted from scholarships but are not willing to offer same benefit to the children of the poor.The NLC president maintained that a huge number of Nigerian youths do not have access to quality education, a willful act aimed at cutting off that youth segment from contributing to the growth of the nation.