ASUU seeks watertight deal from FG NOVEMBER 9, 2013 BY ABDULKAMAR OGUNDELE MUDIAGA AFFE, BOSEDE OLUSOLA-OBASA AND SODIQ OYELEKE Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have given the Federal Government certain conditions to be met before the union could call off its four- month old strike. Part of this condition, Saturday PUNCH learnt, is that all federal parastatals in charge of fund, labour, and education must sign the agreement purportedly reached between its leadership and the Federal Government on Tuesday. A prominent member of the union, who craved anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the union, told Saturday PUNCH that doing this would give the association the confidence that “the Federal Government knows what it is doing when it signed the agreement.” He said, “I must tell you that our mandate remains. The only mandate we have is that 2009 agreement must be met. We have not reached any agreement with the Federal Government. “Since the Federal Government wants to be releasing N220bn every year for five years, then all monetary and regulatory agencies must sign. The Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministries of Finance and Labour, National Assembly, Office of the Presidency, National Universities Commission, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Trade Union Congress and our umbrella body, the Nigeria Labour Congress, must sign with consequences stated. “The reason we will ensure this is that we don’t want argument tomorrow that the agreement was entered in error or that they don’t know the implication of signing the agreement. If possible, documents that will provide for automatic deduction of the agreed money at a particular/agreed date must be provided.” The leadership of the union had engaged in a 13-hour marathon meeting with government delegation led by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja between Monday and Tuesday. A key component of the agreement reached by both ASUU and the Federal Government was that government would inject N1.1trn into public universities in the next five years. Government is expected to inject N220bn yearly into the public university sector beginning from 2014. But government said it could only release N100bn this year, noting that the amount had already been processed. The Federal Government also indicated that the N1.1trn would be domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria to show its commitment to the agreement. The money is expected to be released on quarterly basis to the universities so that there won’t be any problem about funding the deal. The National Universities Commission and the Trade Union Congress will be the joint guarantors of the agreement while the Minister of Education will be the implementing officer. Government, according to sources at the meeting, also agreed to revamp public universities by ensuring that all the issues that always lead to strike are dealt with once and for all. ...Corroborating his view, the Chairman, Lagos State University, ASUU, Dr. Jamiu Oluwatoki said, “It won’t be long again. By next week there should be a NEC meeting and subsequently the congress meetings before the president can call off the strike.”
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 08:37:00 +0000