David Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State and Chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum, has stated that university education is not for everyone.
This came as Umahi emphasized that it was unreasonable for the Federal Government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari (retired), to borrow more than N1 trillion to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
GlareInfo earlier reported that on February 14, this year, the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities went on a month-long warning strike, which was extended by another eight weeks and will end on Monday, May 9, 2022.
The strike has been extended indefinitely because Nigerian politicians are unconcerned since their children are studying abroad.
The governor, who stated that education and security were the most difficult problems confronting Nigeria, also stated that the country’s education system was not properly articulated, adding that secondary or vocational education is the basic education that any nation strives for.
Read also: Lingering ASUU Strike: Here’s What Lecturers Are Asking For
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According to a Punch report, Umahi said, “Our basic problems in this country remain security, health and education. Let me say a little in education which is in our public domain and which is the ASUU. I think that our education system is not being properly articulated.
“University education is not for everybody and that is the truth. The basic education every country strives to attain is secondary school and vocational schools. These are the basic schools and when you have these qualifications, you will able to use it either to start up something or to be able to use it to be employed.
There is a need to review our educational system. It mustn’t be for everybody. I am not ashamed that I have a first degree and my deputy is a PhD holder; it doesn’t matter. It is what you bring on board. So, I cannot see how we cannot sit down with our ASUU leaders and iron out this problem about the ongoing strike.
“I have read on social media, newspapers how students got into trouble just by sitting at home or engaging in means of keeping themselves busy instead of being in schools.
“There is no way Nigeria will go and borrow N1.1tn to meet ASUU’s demand, it’s quite unreasonable. Are their demands genuine? Yes. But we can start little by little.
To further make his position know on Nigerian university education, the governor said, “There must be commitment on the side of both parties that look, “ASUU is not asking for this to take to their houses” so to say. It’s asking for it for our children, to better the infrastructure, to better the lecturers and the students. Yes, but we can start with a fraction of that and then have a programme that will run on the platform of sincerity to address all the lots.
“But let me also say that most of the time, our people have low appetite for maintenance of public works. No matter how much you deploy to these universities, unless the users, the industry regulators begin to treat public infrastructure as their own in the various universities, it will continue to go bad.
“So, it is important for ASUU to show some understanding and for those who are negotiating on the side of government to also show some understanding. Let’s meet ourselves halfway and then open the schools to save the fate of our children.”
