The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, has said the Federal Government cannot stop funding universities in the country as it is constitutional.
He made this known to the newsmen on Thursday.
“There is no way the Federal Government of Nigeria would say they would not fund public universities because it is there in the law. It is there in the Constitution; look at Section 18 of the Constitution; it says ‘university, primary, and secondary are free.
“The only problem is that it is not judicable; that’s the only problem, so I said, I don’t think this government, from what we have seen, is going to say we are going to hands off from university.
“But the autonomy is here, ignited in year 2003 if we follow that law and allow it to run without interference from the bureaucrats, the university system would be fine.”
He further added that if Nigeria commits greater allocations to its educational budget like other countries in West Africa and Europe, there will be no issues with funding.
He said, “If you check the ratio of Nigeria’s education budget to our GDP, it’s one of the lowest in the world.
Earlier said, students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) have protested the institution’s increment in school fees.
Vanguard / Anjola Babatope
