FG Finally Agrees to Meet ASUU's Demands after Over 100 Days

Towards ending the ongoing ASUU strike, the
Federal Government
has committed to spending N200 billion in the
2014 budget on the
universities as well as on each of the next three-
four years until
the universities are brought to world-class
standard as demanded
by ASUU leadership.
This is in addition to the N100 billion dedicated
and already made
available...
Government has also increased to N40billion as a
first installment,
funds for payment of earned allowances to the
striking lecturers,
an improvement from the N30 billion previously
released.
This information is contained in an internal
statement at the

Federal University of Otuoke by Professor Bolaji
Aluko, its Vice-
Chancellor.
On the earned allowances, Prof. Aluko said
"Government will top it
up with further releases once universities are
through with the
disbursement of this new figure of N40 million,
so Vice-
Chancellors are urged to expedite this
disbursement within the
shortest possible time using guiding templates
that have been sent
by the CVC."
Professor Aluko said the development followed
meetings on
September 19 and Oct 11 of representatives of
the Association
of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, led
by Prof. Hamisu
of ATBU and ASUU reps led by its President, Dr.
N. Fagge with the
Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Arc. Namadi.
Sambo, Minister of State for Education, Nyesom
Wike and others.
In the interest of peace, Vice-President Sambo
appealed to
ASUU to call off the strike and apologized over
the "take-it-or-
leave-it" comments made by the Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala.
Other points of agreement at the meetings
include the
following:
Project Prioritization: Universities will now be
allowed to determine
their priorities and not be "rail-roaded" into
implementing a pre-
determined set of projects with respect to the
NEEDS
assessment. Decisions are not to be centralized.
TETFund Intervention: Government assured that
the operations
of the TETFund will not be impaired, and that
the regular TETFund
intervention disbursement to Universities will
continue,
unaffected. So the NEEDS assessment capital
outlays are in
addition to regular TETFund intervention.
Project Monitoring: A new Implementation
Monitoring Committee
(IMC) for the NEEDS Assessment intervention for
universities has
been set up to take over from the Suswan
Committee. The new
one is under the Federal Ministry of Education
and chaired by the
Honorable Minister of Education. In addition, to
build confidence and
ensure faithful implementation and prevent any
relapse as
before, the Vice President will meet quarterly
with the IMC to
monitor progress.
Blueprint: ASUU was mandated to submit a blue
print for
revitalizing the Universities to the Vice President.
ASUU leadership will now meet to decide if the
government should
be trusted again, this time.