The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has warned that most Nigerian universities are currently on the verge of collapsing following “unbearable cost of electricity”.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who spoke on Thursday during the opening session of a two-day national conference convened by the union in Abuja, said the electricity bills of some universities run between N200m to N300m monthly.
According to him, upon the huge bills universities only receive N15m monthly from the federal government as running costs for both electricity and other bills.
He lamented that while the universities get N15 million as total running cost, the government is paying each Senator “N21 million a month”.
He said, “What the government gives you to run the system is N15 million, and you get a bill for electricity alone of N300 million. Where is that money coming from? You have to run the laboratories. You have to run the diesel. You have to run the fuel for vehicles.
“But you know what? A government that will give just N15 million for UNILAG to run, will in turn, give one Senator N21 million a month. The government gives a system N15 million, but an individual gets N21 million. That’s where our priority is”.