ASUU Reveals How It Blocked Proposed ₦1m Tuition For Undergraduates

• Osodeke said that if they had accepted the offer, people would have accused them of fighting for their personal interests…

The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke, has revealed how the union, during its last negotiations, rejected the federal government’s plan to increase school fees of all university students to ₦1m.rejected the federal government’s plan to increase school fees of all university students to ₦1m.

He said government’s plan was to open an education bank and give each student a loan of ₦1m annually at five per cent interest rate to sponsor themselves in school and then pay back when they graduate and start working.

Osodeke stated this while answering questions from participants at a one-day ‘state of the nation summit’ organised for ASUU members by the Bauchi zone of the union.

He said, “At the last negotiation, the first thing they told us was that we should negotiate for our allowances and salaries but we said no, let’s discuss funding first. When we know how much you’re going to pay, then we can negotiate salary. Reluctantly, they went on.

Read also: ‘Stop Children Of Govt Officials From Studying Abroad’, ASUU Urges NASS

“Then, they raised another issue which was why we delayed for four years, that students must pay ₦1m as school fees every year; the government said 70 per cent will be paid to the university while the student keeps 30 per cent.

“We asked them where and how the students would source the money and they told us not to worry. They said they would open an education bank and the students would go there and take the ₦1m every year.

“And by the time you are graduating, you would have been owing ₦5m or ₦6m. If it takes you 20 years to get a job, that five per cent interest on that loan would be building.

“We said we will never allow that, and that was why we went on strike and we delayed in calling off the strike.

“If we had accepted that students pay ₦1m as school fees, they would have increased our pay easily and who would the public and the students blame? It is ASUU,” The PUNCH quoted him as saying.

Osodeke said that if they had accepted the offer, people would have accused them of fighting for their personal interests and not the collective good of Nigerians.

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