The proposed plan to establish a private university to be named after President Muhammadu Buhari by his wife Aisha has been described as a disaster by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The academic union states that the plan of the wife of the President confirms why her husband has continued to reduce budgetary allocation to education since he assumed office in 2015.
Chairman of ASUU, University of Ibadan, Deji Omole, and former national treasurer of the Union, Ademola Aremu, both professors, while speaking in Ibadan, said the leadership of the country under President Buhari should immortalise himself by revitalising public funded education.
Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, had over the weekend at a Town hall meeting in Yola, announced her plan to establish a private university to be named after President Buhari in partnership with some foreigners.
But Omole noted, “When I also heard about the proposed private university to be named after Mr President, I just looked at it as a joke taken too far. If we have a president in a country that has simply refused to fund public education and all we get from the family of the first lady is to establish a private university in collaboration with some foreigners to me I think it is a disaster for this country and for a sitting president.
“The implication is that Nigerians should know that this leadership does not believe in public funded education. Nigerians should support the struggle for the government to take education as a core investment upon which this country will be liberated. It is not the children of the rich that will solve the problems of Nigeria but the children of the poor and the tool they need is quality education.”
Speaking further, Aremu advised the wife of the President to influence policies for her husband to immortalise himself by revitalising public funded education.
“I don’t think that she is serious. We already have proliferation of universities and they are not taken care of. Since they are police makers, they will now formulate policies that will ground public universities aground for their interest to thrive. I thought we have actually left that era.
“I could remember that Obasanjo established Bells and we condemned it. Atiku established his own as former Vice President. If you have private interest, you should not hold public office. If you have interest in anything private, I think it is proper to actually leave the public space for those who want to engage to serve the masses.
“How many people can afford the existing private universities existing in the country? If you want to help education, then increase the capacity of the existing ones. When you are holding a public office, don’t establish a private concern. She should wait until Buhari is completely out of office before thinking of bringing a private university in whatever name.”
