Association berates inadequate funding of libraries

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December 29, 2017 2:03 PM

Adegoke said that libraries, which served as gatekeepers, storehouses of knowledge and a critical element in the educational sector had been neglected.

The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), has expressed dismay over inadequate funding of the National and State libraries across the country.

Mr Micheal Adegoke, the Deputy National President of the union, said this at the end of the regular meeting of the WAEC/Libraries and Others Trade Groups in Lagos.

He said that there was no way the country could achieve the education for all if the present level of funding of the national and state-owned libraries was not drastically improved upon.

He described as a national embarrassment, the present rented apartment of the National Library of Nigeria in Abuja and other parts of the country.

The deputy president, therefore, called on the Federal Government to expedite action on the completion of the abandoned National Library of Nigeria Headquarters building, as a matter of utmost priority.

Adegoke also urged the federal and state governments to improve funding of their libraries so that the aims and objectives of establishing them could be attained.

He urged the intervention of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) in the funding of libraries as it did for public institutions’ libraries.

NAN reports that NASU and other varsities’ staff unions such as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) are currently on strike nationwide.

The unions are demanding that the Federal Government should release N30 billion to them as a condition to calling off their industrial action.

“Government should release more funds to take care of the arrears of the earned allowance of the three non-teaching staff of universities and commence the immediate implementation of the allowances to forestall further accumulation of the arrears,’’ Mr Alfred Jimoh.

Jimoh is the National Vice President of SSANU and made the call at a news briefing on Dec. 15 in Akure, Ondo State.

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