The Federal Government has on Tuesday declared that an additional 30 billion naira has beenreleased to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, claiming that it is at the verge of meeting almost all thedemands of the University lecturers.
Disclosing this development to newsmen, Gabriel Suswam, Chairman ofthe National EconomicEmpowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) assessment implementation committee for universities, asserted that the Ministry of Education would disburse the fund to various universities across the country for the settlement of lecturers’ allowances.
In his appeal to ASUUto consider the plightof the students and that of the government, Mr. Suswam faulted the union’s earlier claimsthat the N100 billion disbursed to the Union by the government for infrastructures in universities was without due and priorconsultations.
The ASUU leadership had last week expressed concerns that a clear modus operandi for assessing the funds released for the universities was yet to be stated by the government.
Meanwhile, ASUU President, Nasir Fagge has continued to hold on to his position that anything short of N500 billion would not meet the immediate needs of the universities.
“We observe that the Committee is so far mentioning only N100 billion. If the implementation is to be related to the funding requirementsin the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreementand the January 2012 MoU, what is due for 2012 and 2013 is N500 billion, not N100 billion,” Mr.Fagge had said.
Mr. Suswam has however refuted claims of the Academic body, affirming that they were carried along inthe entire process where N100 billion was agreed.
He said, “ASUU participated in all themeetings where it was agreed to raise N100 billion, which has already been distributed to all the universities,”
“In fact, the president of ASUU nominated one Dr. Baffa, who is very resourceful. He did all the work, and presented the criteria for distribution of the money which is based on the population of each university,” Mr. Suswam added.
Suswan further clarified that the draft of the documentwas earlier sent to ASUU for scrutiny by the Committee and wondered where the complaint was comingfrom.
“Instead, they wrote me a letter accusing the committee of insincerity. The councils are the onesthat would verify what we are owing, go and ask them, ASUU said no, that unless we put N92 billion on the table,” Mr. Suswam said.
Suswam warned the lecturers to stop blackmailing the government with their protest as the strike was almost going political.
Recall that President Goodluck Jonathan and his cabinet members, especially, the Minister of Finance and Education have beenat the receiving end since the strike action commenced. Even though the presidency has allayed fear that the agreement which wassigned under a different administration would have adverse effect on the nation’s economy, President Jonathan has accepted to bear responsibility for theongoing strike actionand has appealed to the aggrieved lecturers to go back to classroom while the negotiation continues, or better still make a reasonable attempt at shifting ground.
With several appealsfrom the governmentand other well meaning Nigerians onthe need for the Academic body to resume work, many Nigerians are of the opinion that ASUU would have relaxed its decision and consider the ongoingnationwide appeal.
Source: DailyPost
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