ASUU Strike: Suswam Denies Involvement in Varsities Contract Award ASUU • Gives breakdown N100bn disbursement •Police disrupt planned protest by lecturers Benue State Governor and Chairman of the federal government NEEDS Assessment Implementation Committee for the Nigerian universities, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, has denied any direct involvement in the award of contracts for the government owned-universities, either by himself or the committee. Suswam also explained the criteria followed in disbursing the N100 billion intervention fund provided by the federal government among the 59 public universities across the federation, as well as the breakdown of the allocation. The governor, in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Affairs, Cletus Akwaya, noted that the funds were disbursed directly to the vice- chancellors of the benefiting universities in the presence of the chairmen of the governing council of the universities. “There was no-behind-the-table dealings as the disbursement was done in the most transparent manner, with all the vice- chancellors at a meeting with chairmen of governing councils,” he stated. He noted that the committee adopted the population spread of students in various government-owned universities as a criteria in order to determine the allocation of the fund. “The sub-committee relying on figures contained in the NEEDS Assessment report categorised the universities into three. The first category was those with students population of 30,000 and above, the second category had universities with students enrolment of between 25,000 and 29,000, the third category comprised universities with students size of between 15,000 and 19,000 while the fourth category had universities with students population of between 5,000 and 14,000,” he said. The University of Ibadan received the largest share of N3.25 billion, closely followed by the Ahmadu Bello Univesity, (ABU) Zaria, which received N3.2 billion, while the University of Jos, University of Lagos, University of Maidiguri and Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka received N3.05 billion each. Suswam, who noted that his committee had nothing to do with the award of contracts, said the governing councils of the various universities reserve exclusively, the right to award contracts. According to him, “It is important to emphasise that the Presidential Implementation Committee headed by Governor Suswam has nothing to do with the award of contracts under this programme as the governing councils of the universities have the overall control of the funds disbursed to their respective institutions. All the contracts are therefore being awarded by the respective universities without any interference whatsoever by the committee.” He said the committee only assumed a monitoring role on the projects, so as to ensure quality. “For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Suswam and members of the committee have said they would have nothing to do with the contracts and have accordingly consigned themselves to the monitoring role to ensure the projects are executed according to the set standards. Already, the committee has dissolved into six sub- committees to monitor the projects in universities located within the six geo- political zones of the country,” he said. The governor, however, appealed to the leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to discontinue the strike, adding that ASUU’s action was premature and was not based on the realities of the situation. “In ASUU’s view, the 2009 agreement provided for N100billion capital injection to stimulate the process of infrastructure on the campuses. This was to be followed by a progressive increase on an annual basis up to the tune of N400billion by 2014. The federal government unfortunately could not commence this aspect of the agreement in 2009. The federal government position is that although there were delays in the implementation of this aspect of the agreement, having commenced the process in 2013 with N100billion, there would be annual progressive intervention in the following years,” he concluded. Meanwhile the police yesterday stopped members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Abuja from proceeding with its planned protest against the federal government on the lingering conflict of interests in execution of agreements signed by both parties. While the lecturers mobilised to start its protest against the none implementation of the 2009 agreement from the University of Abuja, Gwagwalada campus, they were immediately stopped from entering the campus by a retinue of policemen who turned back the vehicles and motorcycles from roads leading to the campus. The Zonal Chairman of ASUU, Dr. Clement Chup, who spoke with journalists on the development, stated that ASUU had earlier sent a letter to the police authorities in Gwagalada to notify them of their intention to protest,. He added that they were shocked at the actions of the same police. According to him, “We members of ASUU of the University of Abuja had actually planned to carry out a peaceful demonstration yesterday. What we planned was to have a community procession just to march through some major streets in Abuja, to sensitise the public on the essence of our strike. “You will agree with me that the strike that has been on for the past four months now, is a course for worry for everybody. We wanted to tell members of the public that this is the reason why we are on strike because federal government has refused to implement the agreement they had with our members since 2009.” “But unfortunately when we got to the campus this morning, we were prevented from entering the campus by policemen. When they prevented us from entering the campus we sat down helplessly outside the gate, just chatting and trying to put heads together, the policemen came around and tear gassed us several times to disperse us,” he said. Continuing, Chup said: “We were wondering why security agents that are suppose to provide security for law abiding citizens would turn around and begin to oppress the same people they are suppose to provide security for. It was really a cause for worry, even as they threw over 13 canisters of tear gas at us. Some of us were soaked in the tear gas and one of us who has asthma condition was rushed to the hospital. “We insisted that it is our right so at the end of the day we were able to carry out our protest at a point in front of the university gate. When they tried to stop us and they didnt succeed, they now allowed us to carry out our protest at the gate where we displayed our banners, sang our solidarity song and left.” He clarified the union’s earlier notification to the police saying: “Few days before the protest we wrote the Commissioner of Police at Gwagalada to inform him about the protest of yesterday we gave him the letter on Monday. “We didnt request we rather notify them not request. We have seen a lot of pro- government groups with police protection but why we are now being harassed? Three police men even snatched our banners from us.” He equally informed that the strike would go on in view of its intentions, adding that the union will not relent until its demands were met by the government.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 06:43:57 +0000