The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has begun consultations with its members on whether or not to accept the new offer of a yearly payment of N220 billion over the next five years made by the federal government, in furtherance of the implementation of the 2009 Agreement aimed at ending the four-month strike by the university teachers. THISDAY gathered that the federal government at a marathon meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan that ended Tuesday, had made the offer of the annual payment of N220 billion for five years after the union had insisted on getting paid N350 billion in 2014 and N400 billion annually over the next four years. But the federal government had pleaded with the union to be reasonable in its demands so that the universities could be reopened. It also appealed to ASUU’s representatives at the meeting to take its offer to its members and gave them one week to thrash it out. If the federal government’s offer is accepted, the amount will be used for the universities’ infrastructure needs and lecturers’ earned allowances as stipulated under the 2009 Agreement. Following the N200 billion annual offer made by the federal government, the union, after the 13-hour meeting, said it could not take a decision yet on the proposal until its members had examined the offer and decided whether to accept or reject it. Although none of the parties to the negotiations, which began on Monday at 2.40 pm and ended at about 3.30 am yesterday, was willing to divulge details to reporters who had kept vigil throughout the meeting, it was gathered that the concrete annual lump sum of N220 billion offered by government, raised hopes of an imminent end to the protracted labour dispute. Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) were upbeat yesterday that students who had been kept home by the strike would soon return to schools. Briefing State House reporters yesterday morning after the marathon meeting, ASUU President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, said the union would take the message from Jonathan to its members. On what the message was all about, he said the union got a message from the president and would take it to the members. He however declined to say what had transpired at the meeting and whether a truce was reached or not. “Well we had a lengthy meeting with Mr. President, rubbing minds on how best to address the problem of university education in this country. And we now have a message from Mr. President which we are going to take to our members. And we are expecting that our members will respond appropriately to the message of Mr. President,” he explained.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 07:41:01 +0000
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