Kingsley Moghalu reveals what Nigeria must do to end ASUU strike
Kingsley Moghalu, a former presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress, has revealed that Nigeria needs to invest more in the country’s education amid the ongoing academic strike.
The Informant247 observes that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had begun industrial action since February 2022 after the federal government had been unable to meet its demands.
Moghalu while expressing his opinion on a television session, said that the federal government is unable to finance the demands of the lecturers because they have not made education their priority.
Moghalu revealed that the political priority that Nigeria connected to education is very low.
He added that the money given to lecturers and professors in the Nigerian universities are not sufficient compared to what lawmakers receive in the National Assembly.
Moghalu revealed that, “We need to invest a lot more in the educational system. The salaries of our teachers and professors compare the salaries of teachers in Nigerian universities with what our legislators earn in the national assembly.
“I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but there are reports that a senator takes home anything from N20-30 million every month. Based on various allowances not on the actual salaries.
“Sometimes people are very clever they don’t say my salary is N10 million, they say my salary is N1 million and then there are several allowances that amount to N15 million so we are investing a lot of money in the pay of the politicians but if we want to be honest how productive are they compared to if we had to invested a similar amount of money in paying university teachers or secondary school teachers and building to the facilities that we need and creating the laboratory that we need and so on?
“So the political priority that we attach to education is very low and that is one of the reasons for the situation we are in.
“I think the federal government is not able to afford [the financial demands of the lecturers] because they have not prioritized it.”
