The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, says he will tackle the impasse between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government head-on if he’s elected president. .<\/p>\n
Recall that the union embarked on an eight-month strike which ended in October, it has, however, since been at daggers drawn with the Federal Government over unpaid salaries, arguing that its members will make up for the lost time in the classroom.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the imbroglio, Atiku gave the academics an assurance of clearing the backlog of salaries during his appearance at The People\u2019s Townhall organised by Channels Television in Abuja on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to increase the funding level (of education) as against what is currently obtained, no doubt about that because I am a firm and committed believer in education.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have undertaken to say, \u2018Whatever backlog \u2013 we are going to clear all the backlogs and make sure that you go back to classes and students go back to school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The former vice president acknowledged the \u201csometimes invisible roadblocks,\u201d explaining that when the Federal Government releases money for the universities, it does not go straight to the universities.<\/p>\n
According to him, the funds are channelled through \u201canother federal bureaucracy\u201d that \u201cmight decide to do whatever they want\u201d before the monies are sent to the individual universities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not remove the bottleneck?\u201d he asked. \u201cWhatever is due to university A, B, C, D, send it directly!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told of a story where, of course, some funding for universities was stalled at the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC): \u2018NUC, what do you want to operate?\u2019 (This) much. \u2018Universities, where do you want to operate?\u2019 (This) much.\u2019 You give them directly. Why do you have to go through NUC? <\/p>\n
\u201cAs I\u2019ve said, I\u2019ve pledged to increase the funding of education as far as our budget is concerned. Sadly, we are not even meeting our counterparts in West Africa. They may be poorer than we are, but we are not spending as much, as far as the educational sector is concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, says he will tackle the impasse between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government head-on if he’s elected president. . Recall that the union embarked on an eight-month strike which ended in October, it has, however, since been at daggers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":225620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"custom","single_blog_custom":"211693","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"single-left","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"floatbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":{"override_bookmark_button":"0","override_show_bookmark_button":"0"},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[2448,1029,112,47566],"class_list":["post-234493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-asuu","tag-atiku","tag-pdp","tag-salary-arrears"],"yoast_head":"\n