President Muhammadu Buhari has accused the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian universities, ASUU of corrupt practice, saying the union is complicit in the corruption going on in tertiary education. The ASUU has been on industrial action since February 14, 2022, following a directive by the Federal Government demanding ASUU to join the integrated personnel payroll Information, IPPIS, a payment platform for all federal workers in Nigeria. Although ASUU claimed that joining IPPIS was not the only reason that they embarked on the strike but failure by the Federal Government to live up to its 2019 agreement with the union.
President Buhari declared ASUU as a corrupt union today during the Fourth National Summit on Diminishing Corruption organized by the independent corrupt practice and other related Offences, ICPC in collaboration with the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, OSGF, and the joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB today in Abuja.
Buhari disclosed that corruption in education has continued to undermine the education sector, while critics deflect the issue of the funding of education to downplay the corruption, urging the office concerned to focus more on re-evaluating the expenditure of the university system.
In his statement “This year’s summit will mirror how corruption undermines educational policies, and investments and create an unfriendly learning environment for our youths.
The President explained, “Incessant strikes, especially by unions in the tertiary education, often imply that government is grossly underfunding education, but I must say that corruption in the education system from basic level to the tertiary level has been undermining our investment in the sector and those who go on prolonged strikes on flimsy reasons are no less complicit.
He noted that “The 1999 Constitution places a premium on education by placing it on the Concurrent List, thereby laying the responsibilities of budgeting and underwriting qualitative education on both the Federal and State Governments.
“The total education budget for each year is, therefore, a reflection of both federal and state budgets and should be viewed as other financial commitments in their totality.
Buhari further revealed that “The allocation to education in the federal budget should not be considered via allocation to the Federal Ministry of Education and also academic institutions alone, but should include an allocation to the Universal Basic Education, transfers to TETFUND and refund from the Education Tax Pool Account to TETFUND.
However, he laments that “Corruption in the expenditure of internally generated revenue of tertiary institutions is a matter that has strangely not received the attention of stakeholders in tertiary education, including unions.
“I call on stakeholders to demand accountability in the administration of academic institutions and for unions to interrogate the bloated personnel and recurrent expenditure of their institutions. Let me also implore the Unions to work with the government to put faces and identities to names on the payroll.
Meanwhile, the president enjoined the public that “Due to declining resources, the government cannot bear the cost of funding education alone. I ask our academics to attract endowments, research, and other grants to universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, similar to what obtains in other countries.”