Do this and Education will be OK in Nigeria - Prof Adeyeye

Senator representing Osun Central senatorial district, Prof. Sola Adeyeye, Monday advocated 50 per cent reduction in the earnings of all Nigerian elected officers for the purpose of adequate funding of education.
Adeyeye, who made this call while briefing journalists in Abuja, said, he believed that the whimsical demand of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was a reaction to their earnings, which he said were not justifiable.

He also advocated the contribution of five per cent of the earnings of all Nigerian workers for the funding of the education as education taxes, adding that any embezzlement of funds meant for education should be accompanied by capital punishment.

Adeyeye, a Professor of Molecular Biology, who lectured in the United States for decades, also said the National Assembly should henceforth begin the appropriation of 26 per cent  of Nigeria's current revenue to education.

"First, the National Assembly of Nigeria should henceforth appropriate at least 26 per cent of Nigeria's current revenue to education alone. Second, Government in Nigeria, especially the Federal Ministry of Education, has been denigrated into a beast of burden. The metastasis of asphyxiating bureaucracy demands the streamlining of the endless parastatals that drain resources while making little or no contribution to national well-being and progress.

"Third, to raise revenue for funding a national redemption programme in education, all imports should attract a mandatory education tax of one per cent. Fourth, beginning from January 1, 2014 till December 31, 2018, all workers in Nigeria must contribute five per cent of their income as education taxes.

Embezzling any amount of these revenues targeted for education should be taken as an act of treason.
"This should attract the most severe penalty such as impeachment, imprisonment and perhaps death penalty. Fifth, the costs for running the offices of all elected and appointed political office holders should immediately be pruned by 50 per cent. “Something tells me that the implacable demands by ASUU are fuelled by resentment at the cult of obscene privileges which Nigerian politicians have become. But our task is to curb needless privileges rather than add to them," he said.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/senator-asuus-outrageous-demand-spurred-by-nigerian-politicians-earnings/162938/