National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke said the Academic Staff Union rejected the Federal Government’s plan to increase school fees of all university students to N1m.
Osodeke said that the government tabled the plan during the
last negotiation with ASUU.
He stated this while answering questions from participants
at a one-day ‘state of the national summit’ organised for ASUU members.
He said the government’s plan was to open an education bank
and give each student a loan of N1m annually at five per cent interest rate to
sponsor themselves.
The student will then pay back when they graduate and start
working.
Osodeke said, “At the last negotiation, the first thing they
told us was that we should negotiate for our allowances and salaries but we
said no, let’s discuss funding first. When we know how much you’re going to
pay, then we can negotiate salary. Reluctantly, they went on.
“Then, they raised another issue which was why we delayed
for four years, that students must pay N1m as school fees every year; the
government said 70 percent will be paid to the university while the student
keeps 30 percent.
“We asked them where and how the students would source the
money and they told us not to worry. They said they would open an education
bank and the students would go there and take the N1m every year.
“And by the time you are graduating, you would have been
owing N5m or N6m. If it takes you 20 years to get a job, that five percent
interest on that loan would be building.
“We said we will never allow that, and that was why we went
on strike and we delayed in calling off the strike.
“If we had accepted that students pay N1m as school fees,
they would have increased our pay easily and who would the public and the
students blame? It is ASUU.”