The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has dismissed claims by a faction of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) that the education sector has collapsed under the current Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.
The group said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that the claim was at variance with the reality on the ground under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We find the recent claim by a factional leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on the education sector as totally incorrect, and at variance with what the Buhari administration has been putting in place in the last seven years.
“The NANS faction had not only blamed Minister Adamu for the eight-month long strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), but also added that the Nigerian education sector has ‘totally collapsed’ under him.
“While we acknowledge the level of frustration of university students over the lingering lecturers’ strike, we consider it out of place to heap the blame fully on a minister that has been doing all that is necessary to get ASUU to call off a strike it called over a 2009 agreement.
“And contrary to the position of the NANS faction that the Buhari administration is taking Nigerian students for a ride, we make bold to say that tertiary institutions in the country have never been as funded as they have been in recent years”, the group argued.
BMO noted that an unbiased look at the education sector on President Buhari’s watch will show that the administration has done more than it is getting credit for.
“For the avoidance of doubt, this administration has, in the last seven years, pumped a total of N6,003,947,848,237 in capital and recurrent expenditure into the education sector as a whole.
“This is aside from interventions from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) amounting to N2.5trn and N553bn respectively in capital investment.
“We wonder whether this looks or sounds to anyone, especially the NANS faction, as something that could be described as a neglect of the education sector in the Buhari era?
“We also need to add that even though salaries and allowances of all academic and non-academic staff are taken care of by the federal government, tertiary institutions have continued to have full control of their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR).
“So shouldn’t the students be looking elsewhere for answers to their questions?”
The group added that the Buhari administration will continue to take all necessary steps to work out a solution to all issues surrounding the 2009 agreement with ASUU and other unions in tertiary institutions, in order to ensure lasting industrial peace on campuses.
