$600bn Looted From Nigeria's Treasury Since Independence

A former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof.
Dipo Fashina, has said an estimated sum of $600bn had been stolen from
the nation's treasury since independence.

Fashina also said while only 15 per cent of Nigerians had struggled to
acquire higher education since 1960, 54 per cent of Nigerians had no
access to education.

The university don made the comments while delivering a speech at a
national education summit with the theme 'Towards a System of
Education for Liberation in Nigeria', organised by the four unions in
the nation's university system in Abuja on Monday.

The union s are the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities, National Association of Academic
Technologists and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and
Associated Institutions,

He blamed the underdevelopment in the educational sector on the
adoption of Western neo liberal policies by some leaders in the
country.

He specifically linked the woes in the sector to the decision of the
Gen. Ibrahim Babangida regime to adopt the Structural Adjustment
Policy, which attempted to run the education sector on market
principles.
--PUNCH