Funding To Redesign Naira Should Have Been Given To ASUU – Sowore

Omoyele Sowore, a presidential candidate for the African Conference on Action (AAC), said Wednesday that he criticized Naira’s redesign, saying the federal government would fund the redesigned notebooks at the University’s Academic Union (ASUU). said it should have been given to ASUU.

In his Politics Today interview on TV Channel, Sowore said the amount the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has spent to reform the naira is N218 billion. He argued that the money should go to the victimized university lecturer.

Sowore pokes fun at Nigeria’s leaders for not caring about the welfare of the Nigerian people, but only about rebuilding Naira.

“These are issues you get from leaders who are concerned about the welfare of the people of the country, not the redesign of the naira which cost us N218 billion. We should have given that money to ASUU,” he said.

According to him, the intervention fund will help prevent strikes and improve the condition of the country’s higher education sector.

The presidential candidate claimed to guarantee free and quality education to all Nigerians if elected president in the 2023 general election.

He also pledged to serve the needs of over 1.7 million Nigerian university students, each of which he noted that each semester he receives N100,000.

They are not running anything well; I will never be part of those who ask the private sector to run. It will be a publicly run education programme.

“We are focusing on free education. Every student in Nigeria who is in higher institution will get at least N100,000 per semester as study grant from the Federal Government,” Sowore added.
Asked where he would get the money to pay his more than 1.7 million students in Nigeria, the British candidate said the government would close government loopholes and redirect them to priority areas such as education.

ASUU said he suspended the eight-month strike on Oct. 14, following the National Labor Court’s order to return teachers to work.

When they returned to class, the federal government paid university teachers half their salaries for October. The development did not bode well for faculty members who embarked on a day-long nationwide protest against partial payments last Monday.

However, the federal government later defended prorated payments to ASUU members in October, saying they would not be paid for unfinished work.

Labor Minister Chris Ngige, through his Ministry of Labor and Employment spokesman Olajide Oshundun, has dismissed media reports that the government is biased regarding salaries for university teachers.