President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, yesterday said the struggle of the union frustrated the plan by some politicians to cripple public universities in the country.
Osodeke also noted that after the national struggle ASUU chapters were likely to face their internal problems.
He spoke at a special congress by ASUU, Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University (former Federal University of Agriculture) chapter in Makurdi, in honour of the outgoing vice chancellor, Prof. Anande Kimbir.
“Both the primary and secondary education have been taken over by the private sector. No matter how bad they are treated, they can no longer go on strike because the children that are in those schools are that of the poor and nobody cares whether they are in school or not. So if not for our struggle the same thing would have happened to public universities, and we will continue to stand our ground to say no.
“These politicians who own these private Universities usually look at us in the public universities especially ASUU as a stumbling block, while they were considering to privatise federal universities through Public Private Partnership, the other option being suggested was student loan with five per cent interest.
“If you don’t know, they are planning to sell the universities (federal universities) through Public Private Partnership by two presidential candidates and the other plan is to initiate student loans at 5 percent interest,” he said. (leadership)