A non-governmental organization, NGO, the Muslim Media See Group of Nigeria, MMWG, has called on President Bola Tinubu to rescue the country’s education sector from total collapse, reminding him of his assurance of adequate attention to the sector.
The group, which condemned what it termed as “open and shameful neglect” pervading the educational system in Nigeria, was reacting to fresh threats emanating from members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU over the non-payment of outstanding salaries, which necessitated a week warning strike in all universities recently.
In a statement signed by the MMWG National Coordinator, Ibrahim Abdullahi and issued on Thursday, the group said President Tinubu’s administration “must be different in addressing industrial matters capable of causing educational backwardness in the country.”
It noted with regret that the federal government under former President Muhammadu Buhari “was notorious for non-caring attitude on educational and health matters which resulted in terrible several strike actions that caused setbacks for the country.”
The group, however, said that President Tinubu’s assurance on “bye-bye to strikes, lock-outs and industrial instability” must be effected to allow better education to flourish in Nigeria.
It recalled that the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman and the Minister of State, Yusuf Sununu, initially claimed ignorance of the SSANU demands when the warning strike started recently and wondered whether they have taken any steps “to prevent a full-blown strike from happening soon in our educational system; since the warning strike ended.”
MMWG, therefore, called on the ministers to prevent the impending SSANU strike again by addressing all issues at stake without further delay.
On the non-collection of several billions of Naira by 24 states from the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC to address educational development in schools across the Federation, the group said “This has shown how less the state governors rated the education industry in Nigeria.”
“While the governors rhetorically speak on educational development, their non-payment of counterpart funding for the past five to ten years has shown that they work against the sector, especially at primary, junior and senior secondary levels which are the foundations of proper education, because their own biological children attend elitist schools.
“This bad attitude of nation’s leaders must stop,” the group stated.