FG plans to introduce minimum of N350,000 tuition in varsities –ASUU

The zonal coordinator of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, Ibadan Zone, Dr. Ade Adejumo, on Tuesday alleged that
the Federal Government was making attempts to make students of
federal universities pay a minimum of N350,000 as tuition fee.

Adejumo said this while addressing members of the Correspondents
Chapel in Ibadan.

He said it was vital for ASUU to let the public know that there
could be labour crisis in federal universities, adding that the
proposal led to the breakdown of the 2017/2018 renegotiation of the
2009 FGN/ASUU agreement.

He said, “The union is again constrained to draw the attention
of Nigerian public to an impending labour crisis in the Nigerian
universities as a result of the insensitivity of the Nigerian
government to issues critical to the survival of the educational
system in Nigeria.

“It is no longer news that the renegotiation, which Minister of
Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, promised was going to last for only
six weeks, has broken down.

“The union was confronted with a situation where government is
bent on imposing tuition fees, beginning from N350,000, on students
in the Nigerian public owned tertiary institutions.

“As to how the students will raise such money, we were told that
the government will establish Education Bank, where students will
access credit facilities and pay back on completion of their
studies.

“The union, speaking from the background that education is the
right and not privilege of every Nigerian child, made frantic
efforts to make pragmatic explanations on the negative implications
and the non-feasibility of this scheme to representatives of
government to no avail.”

Adejumo said that the leader of the government team was bent on
the introduction of the high fee, stating that the union would do
everything to resist it.

WorldStage Summit 2018 to Explore New Sources of
Economic Strength for Nigeria
All is set for the WorldStage Economic Summit 2018
(http://worldstagegroup.com/wes) with the Theme: ‘New sources of
economic strength to make the future happen’ on Tuesday, October
23, 2018 at the Event Centre, Nigerian Stock Exchange, 2-4 Customs
Street, Lagos, by 9.30 AM..

In a statement by World Stage Limited, the organisers, the
summit will attract participation from the Presidency, National
Assembly, MGAs, State Governments, OPS- Oil and Gas, Banking,
Insurance, Maritime, Aviation, Mining, Agriculture, Hospitality &
Tourism, Entertainment, Construction, Power, ICT, Education,
Transportation, Local and Foreign Investors, Media and other
relevant stakeholders.

The #WorldStageEconomicSummit2018 will also include the
presentation of awards to institutions in recognition of their
significant contributions to the Nigerian economy in the last one
year.

According to Mr Segun Adeleye, President/CEO, World Stage
Limited, credit for economic growth and boom in the developed
countries world over the years had been linked to strategic
identification and development of their economic strengths while
government played the pivotal role of motivating the private sector
with incentives to achieve the common goals in most cases.

However, he said Nigeria has never at any particular period
deliberately developed any area of her economic strength, rather it
dumped the agriculture where it had comparative advantage when oil
was discovered in the 1960(s) and since then economic development
has been approached haphazardly.

“Notwithstanding that Nigeria has never at any particular period
intentionally developed any area of economic strength, the dynamic
nature of global interest could be a blessing if the country can
identify and run with the right future to fast-track
industrialization, just as the telecommunications sector broke all
record of growth in the last decade,” he said.

In a global economy where tech companies like Microsoft, Google,
Facebook are richer than all African countries put together, he
said managers of the economy cannot continue to fake ignorance of
the needful, that mineral resource will no longer be a major factor
in future relevance and prosperity.

“Conscious of the growing population of Nigeria with about 50
per cent youth unemployment rate as a wakeup call, the last two
editions of the WorldStage Economic Summit (2016 and 2017) looked
at Addressing the unemployment crisis in Nigeria; and Transforming
Business and Economy Through Innovation respectively,” he said.

“Going forward, the WorldStage Economic Summit 2018 will bring
to the consciousness of stakeholders the need to be on the driver’s
seat of the economy and transit to a future of knowledge,
competitiveness and prosperity.

“To identify right sources of economic strength for Nigeria, WES
2018 will create opportunity for the policy makers and the private
sector to match the potential in the economy with new development
around the world that focuses on the shape of things to come.”

He listed the Sub-themes of WES 2018 to include Digital
ecosystems to drive future growth; Developing the Agribusiness; The
Blue Economy Option for Nigeria; The place of Artificial
Intelligence in future growth; Blockchain Technology and the
future; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Education in Nigeria.

WorldStage Economic Summit is a global platform for addressing
economic challenges through diagnoses and application of
practicable solutions with public and private sector engagement in
a research and innovation driven system to inspire new thinking in
business operation, policy formulation/implementation, economic
reform and development.

By PRNigeria