The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has said it was ready to meet with the incoming administration of Senator Bola Tinubu to find a permanent solution to incessant faceoff with the government.
The union said it could only do this on one condition, that government must show determination to handle education issues with the seriousness they deserve.
Speaking in a chat with Vanguard yesterday, the National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, however, said if the Tinubu administration would go the way of its predecessor, then the final nail would have been put on the coffin of tertiary education in the country.
" We can meet and are ready to meet with the incoming government if they would show more seriousness and willingness to accord education the pride of place it deserves.
"They just have to go many steps higher than what we have now. We hope they would see the need to give education top priority and save it from collapse," he said.
On the steps to resolve the issue of withheld salaries and other matters in contention with the outgoing government, Osodeke noted that no significant progress had been made.
He stated: " We called off our industrial action about six months ago because of the pronouncement by the court, but up until now, the matter is still dragging at the court.
"It was easy and quick for them to get us to suspend the strike, but it has taken ages for the matter to be resolved by the court. Our next hearing date is May 2 this year.
"They are using bureaucratic bottlenecks to let the matter drag before the court. A number of things they said they would do, they have not done them. Anyway, their time is almost spent."
Commenting on the N320 billion intervention fund the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, said it would release to higher institutions this year, Osodeke said there was nothing spectacular about it.
" It is an intervention fund and it is also statutory as it is from the 2.5 per cent education tax TETFund collects from the profits of public quoted companies. Even that TETFund is in existence is courtesy of the struggle of ASUU.
"The government has not said anything about the N470 billion it promised to include in the 2023 budget and the year is almost halfway now," he said.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students, Joint Campus Committee, NANS JCC, Ondo Axis, has said it would report any misuse of the N320 billion special intervention fund to be given tertiary institutions by TETFund, to anti-graft agencies.
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who disclosed this in a statement yesterrday, said: "We strongly believe this is a significant opportunity for schools to upgrade their facilities which will further enhance academic qualities and activities on campus.
"NANS Ondo JCC wishes to commend the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, for its sincerity of purpose in line with the anti-corruption campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari, by announcing the figures to be disbursed to each university, polytechnic, and college of education.
"Information at our disposal reveals each university will receive the sum of ?1,154,732,133.00, while each polytechnic and college of education will get ?699,344,867.00 and ?800,862,602.00 respectively. This is the highest disbursement to each beneficiary institution since the inception of TETFund.
"NANS Ondo JCC is, however, sending a strong note of warning to the managements of Ondo State institutions to consider utilizing these funds effectively and judiciously for the development of our schools and other academic-related activities.
"In view of this, NANS Ondo JCC will be setting up a task force, basically to ensure that the funds are not diverted and mismanaged. The committee will be engaging the EFCC and ICPC should we suspect any financial misappropriation of the said fund by any school management."
