Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
One of the leading presidential candidates in the 2023 poll and the flag bearer of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has said that the Federal Government of Nigeria could actually address the demands of university lecturers who have been on strike for as many months now.
The former Anambra State Governor who disclosed this on his Twitter handle, said that the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, could be substantially met with the available resources to the Federal Government including the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
Obi said that the protracted strike could have been prevented if the leaders of the country were proactive enough, but regretted that even TetFund had been mismanaged.
The Labour Party candidate who regretted the bureaucratic bottlenecks in accessing TetFund, promised to clear up the impediments and make the process less stressful and more transparent.
“Within available national resources and (TetFund), there should be funds to reasonably tackle the problems of our tertiary institutions and prevent ASUU strikes. Unfortunately, due to state capture, TetFund has been grossly mismanaged.
“We intend to change extant and enabling policies to make access to such funds seamless, transparent and dedicated for prescribed purposes.”
