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.
