The “political need” connected to training in Nigeria, as per Kingsley Moghalu, a previous delegate legislative leader of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is “very low.”
Since February 14, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been protesting, as they have been requiring a survey of teachers’ pay rates as well as better college subsidizing.
Be that as it may, gatherings among ASUU and the Federal Government have been finishing off with gridlock.
Communicating his disappointment at the waiting ASUU strike, Moghalu during a meeting with Channels Television on Tuesday, said Nigeria needs to put more in training rather than compensations of legislators.
“We need to invest a lot more in the educational system — the salaries of our teachers and professors in Nigerian universities, compared to what our legislators earn in the National Assembly. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but there are reports that a senator takes home anything from N20 million to N30 million every month based on various allowances, not the actual salaries,” he said.
“Sometimes, people are very clever. They don’t say ‘my salary is N10 million.’ They say ‘my salary is N1 million’, and then there are several allowances that amount to N15 million.
“So, we are investing a lot of money in the pay of politicians, but if we want to be honest, how productive are they, compared to if we had invested a similar amount of money in paying university and secondary school teachers and building the facilities that we need, creating the laboratories, and so on?
“The political priority that we attach to education is very low. That is one of the reasons for the situation that we are in now.”
Asked if he believes the federal government cannot afford ASUU’s demands, Moghalu said the government needs to review its priorities.
“I think the federal government is not able to afford it because they have not prioritised it. Everybody sees a lot of money being spent in this country. Everybody sees a lot of money being borrowed in this country,” he said.
“We borrow sometimes for physical infrastructure. Why can’t you borrow to build your society in a very foundational way?
“Why can’t you borrow to pay the N1.3 trillion that ASUU and Jonathan’s government agreed would be paid in 2012 and over a period of time.”