Buhari should redirect presidency, National Assembly budgets to ASUU – SERAP

Buhari should redirect presidency, National Assembly budgets to ASUU – SERAP

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The group advised Buhari to redirect some of the presidency’s N3.6 billion budget for feeding and travels, and the N134 billion allocated to the National Assembly for 2022 to ASUU.

SERAP also called for the recovery of “missing N105.7 billion of public funds” from ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to fund public tertiary institutions.

In a letter on July 2, Deputy Director, ERTAP, Kolawole Oluwadare said meeting ASUU’s demands would address the inequality in educational opportunity.

SERAP lamented that the government’s failure to implement the agreement with the union has kept many students at home while the children of politicians attend private schools.

“If people have access to education, they can develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights.

“Education gives people the ability to access information detailing the range of rights that they hold, and government’s obligations.”

SERAP urged the President to take action on its demand within seven days or face legal actions to compel the government to comply.

ASUU accuses the government of poor funding and little commitment to the payment of academic earned allowance (EAA).

Others are the continued use of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the refusal to adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).