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Home News Business Technology Politics Sports Entertainment Awo vs Achebe Style Viewpoint Editorial Forum Jobs Columns ASUU strike: Much ado about N130bn? on August 29, 2013 / in Education 12:26 am / Comments Tweet BY LAJU ARENYEKA In the eyes of an undergraduate who has lost 60 days of his academic calendar due to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), N130bn is a lot of money. To the parents of such a student, N130bn should be enough to settle whatever grievances ASUU has. So why then has ASUU refused to put an end to the strike despite Federal Government’s disbursement of N130bn? In this report, Vanguard Learning seeks answers to these questions, and delves into the root causes of the ASUU strike. The Federal Government recently asked striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to get back to their classrooms and resume work while all contending issues are being resolved as it had disbursed N130 billion to their governing councils. Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim in Abuja ordered the striking lecturers to return to their duty posts saying that the Federal Government has “shown enough commitment to ending the strike but that the lecturers are being inconsiderate with their demands.” The 2009 Agreement/2012 MoU For the lecturers, the word “demand” might not be the appropriate term for this situation. The National treasurer of the union, Dr. Ademola Aremu, while speaking to newsmen recently said: “When we come for negotiations, each side comes with their own charter of demands. That is what both ASUU and the Federal Government did. For two years, we were negotiating, until we came to a middle ground and arrived at the agreement. The agreement was not our original demand, but as a result of compromise on both sides.” In 2001, the FG entered into an agreement with ASUU aimed at resuscitating the university system in Nigeria and saving the system from total collapse. The agreement provides for re-negotiation every three years for impact assessment and its implementation.