The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called on the Federal Government to put an end to the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and re-open the institutions which have been shut down since February 14, 2022.

This came as the TUC criticised the planned privitisation of public healthcare facilities in the country, the deteriorating state of insecurity nationwide, as well as the outburst of Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, for claiming bandits were running a parallel government in his state.

Addressing newsmen at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC), National Administrative Council, and Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Abuja on Friday, the TUC President, Festus Osifo, said the continued closure of universities was becoming an embarrassment to the country’s image.

He said: “You will agree with me that where there is a will, there is always a way.  Recently, the Nigerian government spent about N1.4 billion to buy vehicles and donate to the Government of Niger.

“The kind of profligacy we have in government is too much. If government is serious, I can tell you that they will resolve this issue of ASUU within 48 hours.

“So it is not about the finances. How much do we pay today as far as fuel subsidy is concerned? And how much of that money actually gets to the masses? How much of that money is actually spent on us?

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“Today, if you see what goes through the budget. If you see the different budget heads. So it is a value that is placed on education. The value that is placed on our university system. That is why we are here today.”

Osifo, who lamented that the planned privatisation of government-owned hospitals would only worsen the hardship and sufferings the citizens were already going through, stated that the TUC x-rayed the poor state of the economy, especially growing expenditure on fuel subsidy, which he said could be curtailed if the country’s porous border was blocked, and could be used to fix the education sector.

“So this shows that out of the trillions of naira we spent on subsidy, a substantial part of it ends up in subsidising the entire West Africa sub-region.  If the only thing government can do is to manage the border or secure the border, you are going to reduce the quantity of products that we consume on a daily basis,” the TUC President said.

On insecurity, Osifo urged President Muhammadu Buhari to act decisively and prevent a situation where terrorists and bandits would become an occupation force, adding that the outburst by the Kaduna State Governor was a clear indication of the failure of the security network in the entire country.

Meanwhile, the TUC has appointed Nuhu Toro as substantive Secretary General, to replace Ozi Musa Lawal, who died when bandits attacked the Abuja-Kaduna bound train a few months ago.

The Star