President Goodluck Jonathan
yesterday directed the two federal government committees negotiating the
requests by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to take immediate
measures at ending the ongoing strike.
The chairman of the Universities
Needs Implementation Committee, Benue State governor Gabriel Suswam, made this
known after a closed-door meeting of the two committees and other stakeholders
with President Jonathan at the State House in Abuja.
Vice-president Namadi Sambo, the
chairman of the Earned Allowance Committee and the Secretary to the Government
of the Federation (SGF), Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim were in attendance at the
meeting.
Also in attendance were, ministers
of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai, Labour, Emeka Wogu, the Executive
Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okogie and
the Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Mike Oghiadome.
Honour Agreement With ASUU, APC
Tells FG
Meanwhile, the All Progressives
Congress (APC) has asked the federal government to honour its agreement with
the ASUU in order to end the ongoing strike that has paralyzed academic
activities in the nation’s public universities.
In a statement issued in Abuja
yesterday by its interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the
party said no government worth its salt can afford to play with education,
because it is the path to national development.
It said ASUU was not making any
fresh demands beyond the agreement it reached with the government in 2009.
‘’Agreements are meant to be
honoured, and breaching them comes with some consequences,’’ it said.
APC said the strike which has kept
students in public universities at home for many weeks was a further blow to
the country’s education system, which has deteriorated so much that no Nigerian
university is currently listed in the top 100 universities in the world and
only a few Nigerian universities made the top 100 in Africa.
According to the party: ‘’The N87
billion that ASUU is demanding represents earned allowances, hence cannot be
renegotiated. In any case, this amount pales into insignificance when placed
side by side with the N1 trillion that has been spent on federal legislators in
the past eight years, or the frivolity involved in a government minister
travelling to China to negotiate a $1 billion loan in a chartered jet.
‘’It is an indication of the kind of
priority that this Federal Government attaches to education that while it has
refused to meet its own side of an agreement it reached with ASUU since
2009, it could pay out N3 trillion in non-existent fuel subsidies to fat cats,
spend N10 billion annually to maintain the jets in the presidential fleet and
do little or nothing to prevent the stealing of 400,000 barrels of crude
oil per day, which translates to $120 million in a month, money that surely
ends up in some people’s pockets!”
Meanwhile, General Muhammadu Buhari,
the National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and other APC leaders would today
address the press on the state of the nation at Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton,
Abuja.
ASUU Has Enough Reason To End Strike
— Suswam
Governor Suswam announced yesterday
that following the negotiation made so far between the federal government and
the union, the ongoing strike should be called off without delay.
Suswam told State House
Correspondents after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the
presidential Villa that, while there was no money to meet ASUU’s demand from
the onset, government has been able to offer N30 billion and has indicated its
willingness to meet other demands by ASUU.
He said, “I can say that we
have made substantial progress and we are hoping that this strike should be
called off based on some of the mechanisms that we have put in place to move
the sector forward. We met extensively yesterday (Monday).
“You know there are two components
to the whole issue; the needs assessment component, which is the one that I’m
handling, we have to some large extent concluded on that; the earned allowance
committee, which is being headed by the SGF, that is where there are some
contentions. But as you must have heard, the federal government made an offer
of N30 billion to assist the various Councils of our universities to be able to
pay the earned allowances.”
This, he said, is in addition to
N100 billion released for infratructural projects in all 61 public
universities.
