ASUU Strike Threat: Atiku Questions Subsidy Savings For Education, Other Sectors

Following a threat of strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has asked the President Bola Tinubu administration to account for the money it said it saved from subsidy removal to fund education and other services.

Atiku, who said that the President promised to use savings from subsidy removal to transform education and other essential services, said the President is now failing to meet basic obligations to university lecturers and prevent another round of industrial action.

Atiku said Nigerians have already paid the price through higher fuel costs, transport fares, food prices, energy bills and school fees, yet public universities remain underfunded, lecturers are complaining about unpaid entitlements and unresolved agreements, and students once again face the threat of disruption to the academic calendar.

“If the subsidy is gone and Nigerians have paid for that decision through unprecedented hardship, then President Tinubu owes the country a simple answer: where is the money?”

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the government sold subsidy removal to Nigerians on the promise that the enormous sacrifice imposed on families would release resources for education, healthcare, infrastructure and other essential services.

“The house of cards of falsehoods erected by the Tinubu administration to justify the suffering of Nigerians is collapsing before our eyes.

“A government that strips citizens of relief, denies them meaningful social protection and fails to deliver the basic improvements it promised has forfeited the moral credibility to continue preaching sacrifice.

“The Tinubu administration has imposed an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis on Nigerians. Families are struggling with soaring food prices, punishing transport costs, expensive energy and shrinking incomes. Yet instead of cushioning the consequences of its own economic decisions, the government has largely abandoned Nigerians to carry the burden alone.

“That is what makes the present university crisis indefensible. Government removed the cushion, collected the supposed savings and imposed the hardship, but Nigerians cannot see the corresponding improvement in their schools, hospitals or everyday lives.

“More than three years later, lecturers are still raising concerns about unpaid salaries and unresolved agreements. ASUU is again warning of industrial action. University infrastructure remains inadequate, while millions of young Nigerians compete every year for limited admission spaces.

So where is the money?”

Atiku said 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?

“Across the federation, public education remains under severe pressure. Several state-owned universities have experienced industrial disputes and disruptions under this administration, even 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.

“You 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 Government and the states, Nigerians are entitled to ask why the quality and capacity of public education remain so painfully deficient.”

Atiku said the crisis also exposes 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.”

The former Vice President said Nigeria’s rapidly growing youth population makes the failure to expand tertiary education capacity even more alarming.

“Every year, more young Nigerians seek university education, yet the physical capacity of the system has not expanded anywhere near the scale required.

“Where are the new classrooms? Where are the laboratories? Where are the hostels? Where are the additional teaching facilities and expanded admission spaces required for Nigeria’s growing youth population?

“You cannot raise the cost of education, leave infrastructure inadequate, fail to settle lecturers’ legitimate claims, disregard agreements and then congratulate yourself for giving students loans.

“That is not education reform. It is organised hardship financed with debt.”

Atiku said the situation is made more offensive by an administration that repeatedly demands sacrifice from ordinary Nigerians while finding room for concessions, waivers and privileges for powerful interests.

_“The poor are told there is no money for subsidy. Students are told to borrow. Lecturers are told to wait. Parents are told to endure.”_

“But when powerful and well-connected interests come knocking, government always appears capable of finding concessions, waivers and privileges.

“That is why Nigerians must insist on accountability for the proceeds government claimed would be liberated by subsidy removal.

“The promise was straightforward: remove subsidy, free enormous resources and invest them in education, healthcare, infrastructure and social welfare.

“But today, ASUU is again raising the prospect of a nationwide strike over unpaid entitlements and outstanding agreements. State universities have also experienced industrial disruptions. Students are borrowing to fund increasingly expensive education, while university infrastructure remains grossly inadequate.

“The sacrifice has been collected from Nigerians in full. The promised benefits have not been delivered in full.

“So President Tinubu must answer the question that will not go away: where is the money?

“Nigerians cannot continue making endless sacrifices for a government whose promises exist mainly in speeches, press releases and statistical announcements.

“A government cannot keep taking from the people, returning excuses and loans, and calling that reform.

“Tinubu removed subsidy from the people, but he has not removed the threat of ASUU strikes. He has not resolved the crisis of unpaid obligations. He has not sufficiently expanded our universities. He has not made education more affordable. And he certainly has not removed the hardship confronting Nigerian families.

“That is the tragedy and the fraud of the Tinubu economy.”