The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Thursday, said the country was in a deep crisis following the migration of academics from Nigeria to other countries.
The union also advised the country to invest more in the education system while calling on the country’s budgeting agencies to separate the budget of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund from Nigeria’s annual budget to enable effective implementation.
ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodoke, made the call at the TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research, Showcase and Closing Event held on Thursday at Innov8 Technology Hub, Airport Road, Abuja.
Osodeke, who spoke against the backdrop of suspicion that the national budget may not enjoy 100 per cent implementation, observed that strangely, for the first time, government decided to add TETFund’s budget to the national budget.
The ASUU president added that once TETTund’s budget is included in the national budget, “it is finished.”
He also called on Nigerians to deal with inferiority complex, which allows them to depend on services abroad, stating that every country in the world that wants to develop must use its ideas and use its people and those ideas are in the universities.
Osodeke decried continuous patronage of foreign goods and services by Nigerians even when they can be sourced locally.
“In 2020 we were challenged to produce something better than IPPIS, it took us two months to produce it, UTA, which we have presented to National Assembly, to the House; then we said let’s test the twin and IPPIS came last; but Nigeria insisted on using IPPIS.
“Every year, the Nigerian government pays $40 to a company in UK for paying me salary and you reject the one in your university. You want to do anything you run abroad,” the ASUU President said.
