President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday directed the two federal government committees negotiating the requests by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to take immediate measures at ending the ongoing strike. The chairman of the Universities Needs Implementation Committee, Benue State governor Gabriel Suswam, made this known after a closed-door meeting of the two committees and other stakeholders with President Jonathan at the State House in Abuja. Vice-president Namadi Sambo, the chairman of the Earned Allowance Committee and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim were in attendance at the meeting. Also in attendance were, ministers of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai, Labour, Emeka Wogu, the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okogie and the Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Mike Oghiadome. Honour Agreement With ASUU, APC Tells FG Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the federal government to honour its agreement with the ASUU in order to end the ongoing strike that has paralyzed academic activities in the nation’s public universities. In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said no government worth its salt can afford to play with education, because it is the path to national development. It said ASUU was not making any fresh demands beyond the agreement it reached with the government in 2009. ‘’Agreements are meant to be honoured, and breaching them comes with some consequences,’’ it said. APC said the strike which has kept students in public universities at home for many weeks was a further blow to the country’s education system, which has deteriorated so much that no Nigerian university is currently listed in the top 100 universities in the world and only a few Nigerian universities made the top 100 in Africa. According to the party: ‘’The N87 billion that ASUU is demanding represents earned allowances, hence cannot be renegotiated. In any case, this amount pales into insignificance when placed side by side with the N1 trillion that has been spent on federal legislators in the past eight years, or the frivolity involved in a government minister travelling to China to negotiate a $1 billion loan in a chartered jet. ‘’It is an indication of the kind of priority that this Federal Government attaches to education that while it has refused to meet its own side of an agreement it reached with ASUU since 2009, it could pay out N3 trillion in non-existent fuel subsidies to fat cats, spend N10 billion annually to maintain the jets in the presidential fleet and do little or nothing to prevent the stealing of 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which translates to $120 million in a month, money that surely ends up in some people’s pockets!” Meanwhile, General Muhammadu Buhari, the National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and other APC leaders would today address the press on the state of the nation at Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton, Abuja. ASUU Has Enough Reason To End Strike — Suswam Governor Suswam announced yesterday that following the negotiation made so far between the federal government and the union, the ongoing strike should be called off without delay. Suswam told State House Correspondents after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the presidential Villa that, while there was no money to meet ASUU’s demand from the onset, government has been able to offer N30 billion and has indicated its willingness to meet other demands by ASUU. He said, “I can say that we have made substantial progress and we are hoping that this strike should be called off based on some of the mechanisms that we have put in place to move the sector forward. We met extensively yesterday (Monday). “You know there are two components to the whole issue; the needs assessment component, which is the one that I’m handling, we have to some large extent concluded on that; the earned allowance committee, which is being headed by the SGF, that is where there are some contentions. But as you must have heard, the federal government made an offer of N30 billion to assist the various Councils of our universities to be able to pay the earned allowances.” This, he said, is in addition to N100 billion released for infratructural projects in all 61 public universities. - See more at: leadership.ng/news/210813/jonathan-directs-team-end-asuu-strike#sthash.BLLuwwzH.4CQ5owNd.dpuf
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 08:04:32 +0000
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