The President of the ASUU, Prof. Chris Piwuna has accused the Federal Government of neglecting the education sector, insisting that officials do not view its challenges as a national responsibility.
Speaking during The Toyin Falola Interviews on Sunday, Piwuna said the indifference among top government officials continues to stall meaningful reforms in public universities.
According to him, when ASUU embarks on industrial action, members of the Federal Executive Council routinely treat the crisis as the exclusive burden of the Minister of Education.
This, he said, reflects a governance culture that disconnects national development from an educated workforce.
Piwuna argued that education challenges persist because ministries — including Finance, Science and Technology, and others — fail to appreciate how educational decline undermines economic growth.
He noted that ideological differences and entrenched corruption worsen the situation, with government officials treating education like a profit-driven enterprise rather than a public good.
He criticised a growing push to channel TETFund resources to private universities, describing it as an extension of self-interest and contract inflation.
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According to him, the intervention fund has become “a marketplace,” driven by political influence rather than national priorities.
During the conversation, host and historian Toyin Falola revisited ASUU’s long struggle with government, characterised by recurring strikes over unresolved issues such as overdue promotion arrears, withheld deductions, inadequate university funding, and failure to implement key parts of the 2009 FGN–ASUU Agreement.
Other panellists, including Prof. Francis Egbokhare, NLC President Joe Ajaero, economist Prof. Sherrifdeen Tella, and journalist Grace Edema, assessed the systemic decline in higher education.
Egbokhare blamed the crisis on weak leadership within governing councils, infrastructural decay, and a lack of accountability.
He argued that universities could generate more revenue if government ministries patronised them for research and consultancy services.
Ajaero urged government and ASUU to adopt a holistic view of the education crisis, stressing that primary and secondary systems are equally distressed.
Tella added that Nigeria’s disregard for research has contributed to the country’s slow economic and technological development, despite academic breakthroughs that improve farming and industry.
On the ongoing ASUU National Executive Council meeting in Taraba State, Piwuna said negotiations with government were nearing conclusion.
However, he revealed that the salary package proposed by government was unacceptable, stressing that lecturers are living in “survival mode” with deteriorating working and living conditions. He said some lecturers sleep in their offices with their families due to harsh economic realities.
Piwuna insisted that ASUU remains committed to securing improved welfare, better funding and a future where universities can drive innovation rather than merely struggle to survive.
