FG Claims It Met ‘Almost’ All ASUU’s Demands After Releasing Additional N30bn

The Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday, September 3, said it had met almost all the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) after releasing additional N30 billion to the striking union. The lecturers, however, seem to be not satisfied.
Chairman of the National Economic Empowerment DevelopmentStrategy (NEEDS) assessment implementation committee for universities, Gabriel Suswam, dislclosed the the funds, which are the payment of lecturers' allowances, would be disbursed between various universities by that the Ministry of Education.
While appealing to ASUU to end the strike, Suswam frowned at the union's claims that the previous disbursement of N100 billion by the government for infrastructures in the universities was done without consultations.
This is"N500 billion, not N100 billion"
Last week, the ASUUleadership expressed concerns that a clear procedure for assessing the funds by the universities is yet to be defined.
Nasir Fagge, ASUU President, had insisted that only the provision of N500 billion would 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 requirements in the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement and the January 2012 MoU, what is due for 2012 and 2013 is N500 billion, not N100 billion," Fagge claimed.
Suswam, however, said ASUU was carried along in the entire process where N100 billionwas agreed:
"ASUU participated in all the meetings where it was agreed to raise N100 billion, which has already been distributed to all the universities." "In fact, the president of ASUUnominated 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," he added.
Suswam also said that after drawing up the draft, the Committee sent the document to ASUU for their perusal.
"Instead, they wrote me a letter accusing the committee of insincerity. The councils are theones that would verify what we are owing, goand ask them, ASUU said no, that unless we put N92 billion on the table."
He addedthat governing councils, and not his committee, would be responsible for awarding contracts in the universities, addingthat the lecturers' strike has assumed a political dimension.
It will be reminded that ASUUhas been on a indefinite strike nationwide since 1 July 2013.The Union stated that the FG has not been following the law that entered into force in 2009 that guarantees a N12,500 monthly allowance to each lecturer.-Premium time