Nigerian students in Universities across the country may not return to their campuses soon if the words of the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, are anything to go by.
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), have been on a nationwide strike for five weeks now thus, paralyzing academic activities in the nation’s Ivory Towers.
Speaking in Minna, Niger state, at annual National Council on Finance and Economic Development meeting on Tuesday, the minister said the federal government does not have the kind of money ASUU is demanding.
According to Okonjo-Iwela, the striking university lecturers are demanding for a whopping N92 billion in extra allowances, insisting that there is no way government could afford that much when it is gradually reducing public expenditures.
She said, “At present ASUU wants the government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances when resources are not there and when we are working to integrate past increases in pensions. We need to make choices in this country as we are getting to the stage where recurrent expenditures take the bulk of our resources and people get paid but can do no work.”
The Minister further said that should government go ahead to meet the lecturers’ demand, it would be difficult to carry on with provision of infrastructure that the Universities are in need of, saying “ if we continue to pay them salaries and allowances we will not be able to provide infrastructure in the universities.”
The present administration, she said is committed to reducing recurrent expenditure which has increased significantly before she assumed office in the Ministry of finance, adding “In fact, recurrent expenditures accounted for about 77.2 per cent of the federal budget and we are now working to re-balance this ratio”.
