Nigerian Undergraduates urge FG to place political office holders on same salary scale with civil servants

President Buhari

Nigerian undergraduates under the aegis of  Alliance of Nigerian Students Against Neo-Liberal Attacks have urged the Federal Government to place political office holders on the same salary scale with civil servants.

The students made this demand in Osogbo on Saturday in a statement issued to commemorate 2015 International Students’ Day.

They said education should be free at tertiary level despite the economic crisis facing the nation.

The ANSA said government should use the excess fund which would be saved on political office holders’ salary to fund education which they said needed an urgent attention.

According to the statement, the students who are from the Obafemi Awolowo University; University of Ibadan and University of Benin  among other tertiary institutions marched through some streets in Osogbo, the Osun State demanding free education

The convener of ANSA, Oluwole Olubanji, urged the President to fund   tertiary institutions better, saying Nigeria must start allocating  at least 26 per cent  of the 2016 budget to education in line with the recommendation of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

He condemned the stoppage of WAEC fees by some state governors, saying the financial crisis excuse given by the governors was untenable.

Olubanji said, ” We must state unequivocally that this excuse is untenable and indeed u justifiable by the extravagant lifestyles of political office holders, who are paid from the dwindling revenue.

” Ministers and commissioners, including governors, still earn hundreds of million as allowances, security  votes e.t.c while they make workers languish in poverty, hunger and diseases in the name of dwindling revenue.

” If the economy is indeed terrible, let political office holders be placed on the same salary scale with the civil servants.”

Olubanji also said ANSA was against the planned merger of Osun State owned tertiary institutions.

He said merging the institution would worsen admission problem and would lead to mass sacking on many workers including lecturers.

“In 2003, the six months strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) exposed the massive rot in the education sector. No school in Nigeria has teaching or learning facilities that are commesurate with numbers of students and growing population of admission seekers.

” ASUU demanded that the Federal Government  should release N1.3 trillion as intervention fund to save the education sector from collapse but nothing has been done on this, ” he added.