Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said threat of fresh industrial action by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), exposed the fraud in President Bola Tinubu’s subsidy removal.
Atiku in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, recalled that Tinubu promised that subsidy funds would be released to fund education, healthcare, infrastructure and other essential services.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, noted that more than three years after subsidy was removed, lecturers are still raising concerns about unpaid salaries and unresolved agreements.
Atiku said ASUU is again warning of industrial action, stating that university infrastructure remains inadequate, while millions of young Nigerians compete every year for limited admission spaces.
According to him, the administration’s attempt to defend subsidy removal by pointing to increased allocations to state governments raises an even more troubling question about the condition of public education across the federation.
“Government officials repeatedly tell Nigerians that subsidy savings have translated into larger allocations to states.
“But if substantially more money is supposedly flowing to the states, why has the condition of public education not improved accordingly?” Atiku asked.
He added that several state-owned universities have experienced industrial disputes and disruptions under this administration, while the Federal Government continues to advertise an era of stability in the tertiary education calendar.
“The crisis is therefore not merely a federal university problem. It exposes a wider contradiction between the enormous revenues government celebrates and the deteriorating public services Nigerians actually experience,” he said.
The former vice president said the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government cannot boast about record allocations while students sit at home because lecturers are on strike.
“You cannot celebrate higher revenues when classrooms, laboratories, hostels and teaching facilities remain inadequate.
“If more money is reaching both the federal and state governments, Nigerians are entitled to ask why the quality and capacity of public education remain so painfully deficient,” Atiku stated.
According to him, the crisis also exposed the contradiction at the heart of the administration’s student loan policy.
“This government removed subsidy, increased the cost of transportation, food and virtually every other necessity, and watched the cost of university education rise beyond the reach of many families.
“After helping to make education more expensive, the same government created NELFUND and now celebrates giving young Nigerians loans to pay fees that many of their parents can no longer comfortably afford.
“What kind of reform first empties a family’s pocket and then offers the child a loan to survive the hardship government helped create?
“That is not progress. It is a vicious circle of government-manufactured poverty,” he said.
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