Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has emphasized that the Federal Government is constitutionally obligated to provide funding for universities in Nigeria.
He made this assertion in response to a statement made by Minister of Education Prof Tahir Mamman, who suggested that universities should explore alternative funding methods and gain greater autonomy.
Osodeke’s statement underscores the importance of government support for federal universities, highlighting that it is a constitutional responsibility. This stance reflects ASUU’s commitment to ensuring that adequate funding remains available for higher education institutions in the country.
The context of this discussion is the ongoing dialogue and negotiations between the government and ASUU regarding the funding and autonomy of universities in Nigeria.
He said: “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. If you check the ratio of Nigeria’s education budget to our GDP, it’s one of the lowest in the world.”
