FORMER Minister of Petroleum, Professor Tam David-West, has described the attitude of the Federal Government towards education as reckless, adding that this has continued to haunt the growth of the country.
David-West made this declaration on Thursday at a town hall meeting tagged: Save Public Education Campaign (SPEC), organised by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan chapter, at the Mapo Hall, Ibadan.
Members of the union had thronged the ancient Mapo hall, for public enlightenment and support on the nationwide strike in Nigerian universities in the last six weeks.
Led by the ASUU chairman of the institution, Dr Segun Ajiboye and members of the executive, the university teachers carried placards with various inscriptions directed at the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Addressing the crowd, Professor David-West said the Federal Government was reckless with education and “any government that is not serious with education is a vagabond government. If we don’t improve education in this country, then Nigeria is finished.
“Nigeria is the only country that spends less on education, other countries that are not as rich as Nigeria allocate more resources to the education sector. But in Nigeria, we have misplaced our priorities. While we claim that the country cannot afford N92billion to equip our universities, we spend fortunes on the salary of members of the National Assembly. Food for the president and vice president gulps N1billion in our budget. If this country is good, it is good for all of us, including the looters.
“This country is very rich but the problem is that we have too many thieves in Nigerian government than committed ones. I don’t see any reason why any lawmaker should earn more than a professor in this country. They spend less time working, some didn’t even have five credits in their O’ level, meaning that they can’t even go to the university.
“ASUU is not saying give us money to put in our pockets, but improve the education system in Nigeria. Yet, those at the top can- not see sense in that,” David-West said.
On the remarks of Dr Okonjo-Iweala, Professor David-West said her comment was borne out of arrogance.
He stated that Okonjo-Iweala was reported by a national newspaper (not Nigerian Tribune) on July 7, 2013 to have said that the Federal Government was illegally spending N8trillion every year, noting that for her to now say that the government could not afford N92billion to save Nigerian education was unfortunate.
On his part, Dr Ajiboye accused Nigerian political leaders of successfully destroying the Nigerian education sector.
He said “we have failed to consolidate on our independence from the colonial masters. Nigerian politicians have successfully destroyed our education. They started by destroying the primary school system but because nobody raised a voice, they extended it to the secondary school and now it is the turn of university education. This is not ASUU’s fight but the collective fight of every Nigerian.”
In his address, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Oyo State branch, Dr Bashiru Olanrewaju, said with the time ASUU strike had lasted, it clearly showed that education is not the Federal Government’s priority.
