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Tag: ASUU

  • PENGASSAN berates FG over ASUU strike

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has berated the federal government over the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) which has crippled academic activities in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

    In a statement issued yesterday in Lagos, PENGASSAN Public Relations Officer (PRO) says the body, “views with deep concern and discontent the ongoing and indeed a recurring strike in our nation’s ivory towers by the Academic Staff Unions of our Universities (ASUU) which has entered its 9th week without any sign of being resolved soon as parties in the crisis continue to trade blame and spoil for more actions on the matter.”

    Comrade Gambo decries the degenerating government habit of reneging on agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) freely entered into with the union and therefore urged “government to immediately refocus the nation’s budget and expenditures to priorities areas which education stands out by using this strike events to declare a State of Emergency in the Education Sector with a view to finally securing it for better rewarding future of our youths.”

    The PENGASSAN PRO who bemoans the fact that Nigerian youths are at the receiving end of the crisis said, “more worrisome is for the majority of the talented youths whose sponsors cannot afford a private or foreign school, and have rested all hope in the public schools now imagine the kind of future generation they are bound to build as they are turned out half-baked as a result of irregular and sandwiched session and curriculum.”

    He appealed to Gabriel Suswam led Committee to sheath their sword by embracing dialogue as a means of finding a lasting solution to the recurring problem of under -funding of the nation’s education, adding “This is so as education remains a major plank for sustainable development and veritable means of rediscovering the dream of the founding fathers of the nation.”

    Gambo lamented the effect of incessant strikes on the nation’s university education system, which he explained has made the country’s best University today to rank only amongst the 6,000 in the world, stressing “while most of our graduates are simply ‘unemployable’, the nation’s scarce resources are routinely frittered away through unabated sleaze and in the face of endemic corruption at all levels of governance.”

     

  • NANS gives Fed Govt seven-day ultimatum on ASUU strike

    Lagos State chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), has given the Federal Government seven days to end the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.

    The students gave the ultimatum at a press conference held at International Press Centre in Ogba, Lagos.

    NANS Chairman, Lagos chapter, Yakub Eleto, said: “The consequences of the ASUU’s industrial action have been dire for Nigerian students. We know that there would be no development in the face of instability in the education sector. Government must save our education system from collapse.”

    The group said the federal Government should not toy with the future of students, saying their plight must be put into consideration.

    Yakubu warned that the association would mobilise students against the President Goodluick Jonathan-led administration should it fail to end the strike and restore the glory of Nigeria’s education system in seven day.

    The students’ body also called fo a state of emergency in the sector.

    The association urged managements of higher institutions to reinstate proscribed students’ union.

    The statement reads: “We demand reduction of tuition fees in Ekiti State University (EKSU) and Lagos State University (LASU). The increment is not sustainable in an economy being distorted by the policies of International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is not interested in the development of Third World countries. If the strike is not called off in the next seven days, we shall embark on massive nationwide protests.”

  • Jonathan urges ASUU to end strike

    Jonathan urges ASUU to end strike

    •Fed Govt releases N30b for allowances

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) should call off its strike, as the Federal Government has released N30 billion for earned allowances.

    He spoke at the inauguration of the Federal Government- sponsored transformation projects at the Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri, the Imo State capital.

    The President, who was represented by the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufai, said N30 billion has been released for the payment of earned allowances in public universities.

    He said the inaugurated projects were in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to provide quality education in the country, adding that the projects were based on the need assessment exercise conducted by the Federal Government in the universities.

    Jonathan urged the universities to engage in research for national development, stressing the need for proper maintenance of completed projects.

    The Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Chidozie Asiabaka, expressed joy at the completion of the structures.

    He said the projects have gone a long way in tackling the dearth of basic infrastructure in the institution.

    “The dearth of classrooms, lecture theatres, power supply, hostels, office accommodation, library space and facilities was the major challenge my administration faced when I assumed office two years ago,” he said.

    The VC noted that with the intervention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, the university has got 1,000 sitting capacity lecture theatre, Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies building, Department of Physics building and the School of Engineering building.

    He also listed the Engineering Technology new complex, School of Environmental Technology Building complex, Centre for Nuclear Energy Studies and Training complex and the School of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology building.

    Others are the School of Environmental Technology building, landscaping of the campus and the provision of solar energy lights on the campus.

    “The university is relieved at the prompt intervention of some agencies,” he said.

  • Resolving Fed Govt-ASUU feud

    Resolving Fed Govt-ASUU feud

    For years, the government and university teachers met. The thrust of the meeting was to find a solution to the problem of university education. The teachers complained that universities are underfunded; that they are no longer known for researches and that the academic staff are not well paid.

    In 2009, the government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) reached an agreement. But since then, the government has refused to implement the agreement, leading to strikes almost yearly. The union is on another strike, which enters its 57th day today. The strike may yet linger because of the government’s stand. On August 13, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said government could not pay the N87billion extra allowance being demanded by ASUU. Her reason: “The government has no resources to meet the demand.”

    Last week, the government reversed itself and offered the teachers N30 billion. ASUU swiftly rejected the offer and withdreaw from further talks with the government which it accused of “insincerity”. Does it mean that there is no way out of the government -ASUU debacle?

    Why did it take government four years to realise that ASUU’s demand on allowances cannot be implemented? What next after the government’s offer of N100 billion for infrastructural development and N30 billion for earned allowances

    ASUU maintains that the being raised were same issues it has canvassed since the 80s and 90s but were never implemented by the government. It insists that unless there are improvements in funding, condition of service and academic freedom universities are doomed.

     

    Terms of the 2009 pact

    After meeting for three years (2006-2009), the re-negotiation committee that had representatives of the government, ASUU and the Nigerian Universities Commission, NUC, on October 21, 2009, voluntarily signed a pact with the terms and conditions binding on the parties.

    The agreement, which was entered into at the instance of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, after he decried the state of the universities, was conceived in the context of making the varsities respond effectively to the challenges of a knowledge-driven economy.

    To achieve this, parties agreed that there was need to critically look into the condition of service of academic staff; funding of universities; and university autonomy/academic freedom, as well as other matters. In all, nine issues were raised and agreed upon by the parties. Under the condition of service,  a new salary structure for academics in the universities was approved;  set of earned allowances (PG supervision, teaching practice/industrial supervision/field trip, honoraria for external/internal examiners, PG study grants, responsibility and excess workload allowances etc) for entitled academic staff per annum; and non-salary conditions of service (fringe benefits, vehicle/car refurbishing loan, housing loan, research and other leaves, injury pension and staff schools) were agreed on.

    Others included pension for university academic staff and compulsory retirement age of 70 for professors; formation of the Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO)  and modalities for the operation of the National Health Insurance Scheme in the universities; funding that will inject N1.5183 trillion between 2009 and 2011 into federal universities.

    On the sources of funds, both budgetary and non-budgetary sources, were recommended. It was agreed that a minimum of 26 per cent of the annual budget of federal and state governments be allocated to education, which shall be progressively reviewed in line with Vision 20:2020, with at least 50 per cent of the 26 per cent channelled to the universities. It was also recommended that education be put on the ‘first charge’ by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, while the Federal Government should appropriate and provide assistance to both states that own universities and those who do not but need such assistance in the area of higher education in accordance with Section 164(1) of the 1999 Constitution, among others.

    The parties further agreed on the restructuring of the governance and leadership structure in the universities; the need to amend the NUC Act of 2004, the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institution) Act, 2004, as well as the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, JAMB Act of 2004.

    To ensure the implementation of the agreement, priority areas; reinstatement of the University of Ilorin 49 lecturers that were sacked; machinery for implementation monitoring; effective date; and periodic reviews were stated. It was agreed that the agreement took effective from July 1, 2009 save for the retirement age of professors, which was set at January 1, same year.

    While waiting on the government to keep its part of the bargain, the union between 2009 and 2011 had issued communiqué after each National Executive Committee meeting to draw attention to government’s failure to implement the essential components of the agreement other than salary and warned of an impending crisis.

    To drive home their point, the body on September 26, 2011 embarked on a two-week warning strike, which forced the government to call the union for a meeting, where the MoU of January 24, last year was eventually signed and parties agreed that discussions on the implementation of the agreement shall be concluded by November 2011, but the government again reneged.

    Again, the government in the MoU agreed to meet funding requirement for revitalising universities; Federal Government’s assistance to state universities; progressive increase of annual budgetary allocation to education to 26 per cent between 2009 and 2020; earned academic allowances; transfer of landed properties to universities; budget monitoring committee, and setting up of research and development units by companies operating in Nigeria, among others.

     

    What went wrong?

    According to ASUU’s President, Dr. Nasir Isa, after the union had worked for an agreement that will transform the education sector, it realised that the government was insincere.  ‘‘The government developed cold feet after signing the agreement. ASUU had to embark on warning strikes and an indefinite one to get the government to commence implementation of the agreement with only the salary component.

    ‘‘Virtually all other components that are indispensable for repositioning the universities so as to be internationally competitive were neglected. On the basis of the salary component alone, Nigeria cannot attain a globally competitiveness system; neither can the universities conduct research to produce knowledge for propelling the country to advanced science, technology, knowledge-based economy and improve quality of life for the citizenry,’’ he said.

    Of the 10 items agreed by both parties in the MoU, the government in the past 16 months has only fulfilled the reinstatement of the Governing Councils of universities and the compulsory retirement age of 70 for professors

    Although ASUU waited till 2011 to embark on series of strikes after the agreement, Isa recalled that ‘‘it took 50 letters, a series of warning strikes, a total and indefinite strike and over 200 meetings to get the government to renegotiate the 2001 agreement’’.

    Isa said the union has lost confidence in the government, especially since it has taken the Federal Goverment since 2009 to implement the decisive provisions of the voluntary agreement, which was due for renegotiation in June last year. The confidence between ASUU and the government, he insisted, has reached a crisis point, adding that the union will not bulged unless the government fully implements the 2009 agreement.

    However, the Federal Government through the Labour and Productivity Minister, Emeka wogu, had said it cannot meet ASUU’s demands and wants a renegotiation to amend contentious issues in the pact.

    He had stated that the 2009 agreement was entered into by ‘another administration’, hence, making it difficult for the Goodluck Jonathan’s government to succumb to its terms.

    Wogu had insisted that since the agreement predates the current administration, there was need for a renegotiation as the terms of the agreement were problematic even to the Yar’Adua’s administration.  ”What we are doing now will be long standing if ASUU will give us the opportunity to continue with these negotiations that have been on-going. We made an offer to ASUU it was not acceptable to them. So the right thing for everybody to do is to come back to the negotiation table.”

     

    Implications of the strike

    The continuous strike and the near nonchalance of the government have reignited the call for the amendment of chapter two of the constitution to make socio-economic rights justiceable. Some observers believe that the incessant ASUU strikes have little or no effect on government officials and politicians, most of whom either have their wards in choice universities across the world or good private universities.

    Also, these students who have been forced back home and are mostly idle may be pushed by untold hardship to crimes, thereby becoming a threat to the peace and stability of their communities.

    Although the ASUU/FGN 2009 agreement is binding on the parties and can be presented before an industry court or court of competent jurisdiction if a party feels cheated, the union has refused to explore that option.

    ASUU according to the chairman, University of Lagos, UNILAG chapter, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka, had explored legal options when the union took the University of Ilorin sacked lecturers’ case up to the Supreme Court and got judgment.

    ‘‘After so many years, the matter got to the Supreme Court and the judgment favoured ASUU because the school was ordered to reinstate the lecturers. But till date, the Federal Government has not compelled the school to obey the court ruling. As a trade Union ASUU has her legitimate right to embark on strike action as provided in labour laws. Again, the Federal Government can challenge the agreement in Court if it feels it is contentious rather than ASUU.

    ‘‘The Union will wait till a time the Federal Government is ready for qualitative university education. Government also has an option to sack all lecturers as Gowon did in the past, or the FG can as well remove budgetary provisions for education,’’ he said.

    Another lecturer from University of Lagos, who does not want to be named, said ASUU was mindful of government’s influence on the judiciary as well as the snail pace of court proceedings.

    He said: ‘‘Yes, we have an option to go to court but are not utilising it because, firstly, if we are to go to court, it will be the industry court and the first thing the court will tell us is to resume work while the matter drags on. You never can tell the number of years it will take for the matter to be concluded.

    ‘‘We know parents are worried and want their children back to school. My children and those of most lecturers are also at home. Parents should look beyond their children graduating in the shortest possible time but consider the quality of education they receive.

    ‘‘Most of the facilities, including hostels we have in UNILAG were donated by private individuals or corporate bodies. What has the government done? Lecturers go to teach with their own material and equipment, those who do not have will just go to the classroom and theorise. Is that what we call education?’’ he queried.

     

    The way forward

    In as much as citizens cannot drag the government to court for the enforcement of their rights to qualitative education, they have constitutional backing to engage in non-violent protest to demand such rights.

    To former Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Edo State, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, the agreement though binding, was beyond a contract, the breech of which can simply force a party to court for enforcement or one that is subject to the scriptures of the Trade Dispute Act.

    ‘‘Nigeria is our own, it is ours to transform. The questions are why not now and why not start with education which is all important?

    ‘‘The constitution recognises the right to protest in favour of good governance, non-violently, which is what ASUU is doing by withdrawing its services. More groups I believe should add their voices and support ASUU rather than appeal to the union to have a rethink because it will mean telling them to love Nigeria less.

    ‘‘If the agreement between ASUU and the government, which took so much effort to be drawn and signed was intended to be implemented, one would have expected that since 2009, various budgetary allocations would have been made to address aspects of the agreement incrementally

    ‘‘To reduce the issues to allowances as some public officials have done is to cheapen the call for a fundamental change in attitude to matters most important to national redemption,’’ he said.

    Obayuwana noted that important as the issue of earned allowances are, the more fundamental issues raised by the union relates to job satisfaction, as those who chose to work as lecturers did so in order to contribute to the much needed manpower development for the country.

    ‘‘Other aspects of the agreement relates to environment like research facilities, lecture halls and conditions under which students, who are the immediate beneficiaries of services rendered by the lecturers live and learn. Having to do with hungry students, who live in overcrowded hostels, who cannot for lack of water, take their bath before coming to receive lectures in poorly lit, overcrowded and dilapidated halls while standing.

    ‘‘The ASUU strike is thus, a crying out in anguish by committed patriots because the situation in the education sector certainly does not need to be like this. It does not require rocket science or any form of wizardry to address the issues raised. All that is needed is the will and commitment on the part of government,’’ Obayuwana added.

     

     

  • ASUU, govt talks crash

    ASUU, govt talks crash

    Hopes of an early resolution of the government-varsity teachers crisis faded yesterday.

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) suddenly withdraw from talks with the government, which it claimed was insincere.

    Teachers in the 61 public universities shunned their jobs on July 1 after declaring an industrial action over the refusal of the Federal Government to honour the terms of the 2009 ASUU/Federal Government agreement.

    Since then, ASUU has been negotiating with two committees set up by the government.

    The committees are headed by Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Anyim Pius Anyim.

    Suswam announced that the government had offered N30b as earned allowances for the lecturers in the 61 public universities.

    But the lecturers are asking for N92billion.

    Yesterday, ASUU President Dr. Nasir Isa Faggae said the union would only return to the negotiation table after the 2009 agreement had been honoured. He spoke at a news conference at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

    He said: “Our members are left with no other choice than to prosecute this strike to its logical conclusion. ASUU members nationwide are saying this strike will not be suspended until and unless the government respects the 2009 Agreement and makes concrete efforts to implement it in the best interest of the country.”

    The ASUU boss accused government of being blunt, declaring that it neither had any motive to revitalise public universities through committed funding, nor was it ready to pay in full the accumulated Earned Academic Allowances between 2009 and 2013.

    “Rather, it (Federal Government) is talking about providing N30 billion to assist various governing councils of federal universities to defray the arrears of N92 billion owed to all categories of staff in the university system. It was a sinister ‘take it or leave it’ threat of grab-the-crumbs or starve-to-death,” he said.

    Dr Faggae who lamented that never in the history of ASUU has it been so ridiculed and embarrassed by governemt representatives during any negotiations, alleged that some government agents were bent on using the struggle to enrich themselves.

    The union also accused government of using propaganda by misinforming the public that ASUU’s demand of the Earned Academic Allowances triggered off the strike. Faggae said this has become a recurring decimal at almost every meeting the union holds with government representatives whereas, the unions always sought implementation of the funding of universities as part of the demands.

    “The ASUU team was particularly amused that government believed that what our members are looking for is just money to spend. Why else would the minister of finance dangle N30 billion as if it was a dole out when, in fact, that amount of money was unrelated to the agreement and the work of the implementation committee. We have said it everywhere, all the time and we still say it here again that our members have earned their allowances by working for them. They are not begging for crumbs from government. The Nigerian government owes them and they deserve to be paid.

    “As a union whose members constitute the intellectual cream of the society and which operates on the basis of principles, we find the events of August 20 and of recent positions on the matter by government as embarrassing, bewildering and highly unacceptable. ASUU cannot believe that the agreement, the MoU and the Needs Assessment Report undertaken and endorsed by the highest public officials in the land, would be so blatantly ridiculed by the same people.”

    Going down memory lane, Faggae recalled that the 2009 Agreement captured a funding requirement of N1.5 trillion to be spread between 2009-2001, noting that the three years lapsed without government doing anything.

    He said this gave rise to the the MoU it signed last January when government also promised to stimulate the university system through N100 billion intervention fund and another N400b each for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

    However, he said for government to know universities areas of priority, it initiated the Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities (CNANU) which submitted its report to the Federal Government in July 2012.

    “”It is important to stress that by our own estimation, the MoU should have fetched Nigerian public universities a total sum of N500 billion by now if government were to faithfully implement the understanding reached with ASUU. A continuation of that process would have yielded a revitalisation fund of N1.3 trillion by 2015.

    “In the alternative, government could have set the estimated sum of N800 billion required to implement the short term recommendations of the Needs Assessment Report for 2012 and the 2013 put together. But alas, all the government is gloating over now is N100 billion which is nowhere near the scientifically-arrived congruent sums in the 2009 Agreement, the 2012 MoU and the 2013 technical report on the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Public Universities. What further evidence do we need to establish government’s bad faith?”

    Faggae lamented that ASUU has had countless meetings with Suswam’s committee, noting that recently, government reverted to its old song of ‘no fund’.

    “We are at pains to report that this epitomises a grand design to frustrate the 2009 Agreement and all other procedures related to it. This is highly unfortunate. How could the same federal government that within the last three years, generously supported private concerns like the airlines and banks with trillions of naira from the public vaults as ‘bail outs’, suddenly turn around to say it has no fund to conscientiously revitalise its own public universities? The government largesse, which was extended to Nollywood is still fresh in our memory”

    Faggae described the Suswam committee as a smokescreen “to hoodwink unsuspecting Nigerians” on the N100 billion carrot government is currently dangling for the implementation of the Needs Assessment Report.

    He added that the union discovered that government had already perfected plans to divert 70 per cent of the yearly allocation by Tertiary Education Training (TetFund) to make up the N100 billion, a situation he said is unacceptable to the union.

    “And unless or until the Suswam Committee gives the union a guarantee that it will not serve as another means of recycling TetFund money and of diverting funds meant for universities, ASUU representatives will not continue to participate in deliberations with that committee.”

    He said ASUU had it on good authority that 75 per cent of the money to be released would not be released directly to ASUU but handed over to the federal ministry of education or the National Universities Commission. He described such move as ‘illegal’.

    Go back to work, Suswam urges teachers

    Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam yesterday urged the striking lecturers to return to work, saying most of the issues which led to the strike have been “substantially addressed”.
    Suswam who is the head of one of government’s negotiating teams, spoke to reporters in Abuja at the end of the meeting of the Implementation and Monitoring Committee of the Needs Assessment Report on Nigerian Public Universities.
    He said: “The contentious issue of the Earned Allowances for which the federal government has approved N30billion for immediate release to the universities to enable them pay their staff after due verification of the various claims of their workers.”
    The meeting, which held at the Benue Governor’s Lodge was attended by the Ministers of Education; Labour and Productivity; Representatives of both the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Education, representatives of federal agencies involved in funding university education and the various workers unions in the university system.
    Suswam said the meeting unanimously adopted a report of its technical sub- committee which had earlier carried out the distribution of the funds to each of the beneficiary universities based on a criteria adopted from the Needs Assessment Report.
    According o the governor, at least 59 federal and state universities across the country would benefit from the N100billion fund to address the gross deficit in critical infrastructure, adding that each of the 36 states would have one university covered in the first phase of the intervention programme.
    He said the the N100billion would be used to build new hostels, renovate existing hostels, provide libraries, laboratories, lectures rooms and theatres, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities, among others.
    Suswam explained that the distribution of the fund was done in a fair and equitable manner based on properly defined criteria, adding that a representative of ASUU participated in the technical sub- committee which made recommendations to the main committee.
    “Our Committee will present the spreadsheet of the projects to Mr President for his approval after which the funds would be released to the Governing Councils of the benefitting Universities,” he said.

  • ASUU withdraws from negotiations with FG

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Thursday announced its disengagement from further negotiations with the Federal Government, over what it describes as the latter’s perceived insincerity in the 2009 agreement as well as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) both parties signed in January last year.

    The union National President, Dr. Nassir Faggae Isa, said at a press briefing held at the University of Lagos on Thursday that the 2009 agreement and the MoU must first be honoured, even if ASUU feels the need to consider renegotiation with the government.

    The union had embarked on a total strike on July 2 over government‘s failure to honour the 2009 agreement.

    Faggae said, “Consequently, our members are left with no other choice than to prosecute this strike to its logical conclusion. ASUU members nationwide are saying this striker will not be suspended until and unless the government respects the 2009 agreement and makes concrete efforts to implement it in the best interest of the country.”

    According to him, during a meeting held between ASUU and the government representative on Monday, government declared that it neither had any motive to revitalize public universities through committed funding, nor was it ready to pay in full the accumulated Earned Academic Allowances between 2009 and 2013.

     

  • ESUT dons committed to ASUU strike

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) chapter has insisted on not compromising the ongoing strike by its members.

    It said the only way its members would backpedal is for the Federal Government to implement the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement and the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

    During an interview with reporters in Enugu, Acting Chairman of ASUU- ESUT, Festus Omeje, blamed the government for reneging on its promise.

    The lecturers called on men of goodwill, to prevail on the Federal Government to respect the two agreements signed.

    He said: “ASUU and Nigerians are worried by the institutionalised falsehood, and lack of integrity exhibited by the Federal Government and hence condemns this perfidy in its entirety.”

    “One of the hallmarks of good governance is integrity; and this is an all important virtue of those who claim to superintend such an important sector as education.

    “The excuse that the government cannot afford to adequately fund university education is dishonest in the face of a situation in which government officials and politicians continue to engage in unconscionable pillaging of state funds.”

    Omeje said the face-off was beyond salaries and allowances for lecturers, pointing out that since the 2009 agreement, the government has set up fact-finding missions to ascertain the state of universities.

    “Panels of inquiries for need assessment for universities have been set up and reports have been submitted, yet the authorities in the education sector seem to have shunned implementation of the recommendations.

    “The needs assessment committee went round the country and what it found was shocking. First, it found that the students-teacher ratio was 1-400 on the average instead of one-40. It found that the classrooms were inadequate and could accommodate only about 30 per cent of the number of students and that education standard was on the decline.”

     

  • House committee urges FG, ASUU to end impasse

    House committee urges FG, ASUU to end impasse

    The House of Representatives Committee on Education on Wednesday appealed to the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities to end the prolonged strike.

    The committee also eulogised the Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Otuoke, Prof. Mobolaji Aluko, for his efforts to establish the new institution on a good footing.

    Members of the committee led by its Chairman, Mr. Aminu Suleiman, were in Otuoke, Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, to monitor the progress and challenges of the new university.

    Suleiman said the committee’s ongoing tour of the federal universities across the country was part of its oversight function of tracking funds contained in the budget.

    He lamented that the industrial action by ASUU had persisted but appealed to the union and the government to quickly resolve their areas of differences.

    He said the two committees on education in the National Assembly had earlier facilitated the dialogue between ASUU and the government.

    Going by the steps taken so far by the government, he expressed optimism that the strike would soon be called off by ASUU.

    Recalling the intervention of the committees, he said: “As an institution we are doing the best we could do to ensure the resolution of the strike.

    “Government through the facilitation of the National Assembly had a series of meeting with ASUU. When ASUU issued the ultimatum, government was reluctant to meet with them.

    “It was at the instance of the National Assembly that we summoned the Secretary to the Government of the Federation alongside the Minister of Labour and Minister of Education and we impressed it upon the government to meet with ASUU. Thereafter we allowed the two parties to go ahead with their negotiation.”

    On the Otuoke University, he said members of the committee were excited at the institution’s progress after touring the library, hostels, administrative blocks and other facilities.

     

     

  • Strike: Govt offers to pay ASUU N30b allowances

    Strike: Govt offers to pay ASUU N30b allowances

    We’ll report to our principals, say teachers

    APC urges action

    University teachers have been offered N30 billion to call off their strike.

    The cash will be for their allowances, which they said the Federal Government had agreed to pay in an October 2009 deal.

    The teachers are asking for N87 billion, besides other demands.

    The government had earlier approved N100 billion for projects in the 61 public universities.

    President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the two Federal Government committees negotiating the requests by ASUU to take immediate measures at ending the strike, which began on July 1.

    The Chairman of the Universities Needs implementation Committee and Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, announced the presidential directive after a meeting yesterday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

    At the meeting were Vice-President Namadi Sambo, the Chairman of the Earned Allowance Committee; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim; Ministers of Education Prof. Ruqayyat Rufai and Labour, Emeka Wogu, National Universities Commission (NUC) Executive Secretary Prof. Julius Okogie and Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Mike Oghiadome, attended the meeting.

    Suswam said ASUU ought to call off its strike based on the N130 billion that the government offered.

    The cash is made up of the N100 billion to be injected into infrastructure in the 61 public universities (federal and states) and the N30 billion for the earned allowances of lecturers.

    For shifting ground from no money to agreeing to assisting the Governing Councils of universities with the N30 billion for the earned allowances, Suswam said ASUU should reconsider its stance on the strike.

    But ASUU remained adamant last night. Its President, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, said the negotiation team would report back to “our principals” when asked whether the teachers were willing to accept the government’s offer and call off the strike.

    Fagge said: “The objective of the on going strike is to get government to implement the 2009 ASUU/ FGN agreement, particularly to implement the provision of the memorandum of understanding we reached in 2012. “It’s important to clarify that at this point, we are not making a demand. There was an agreement with government. At this point, what the union is talking about is the 2009 agreement, not the renegotiation of the agreement.”

    He added: “We will wait to hear from government. For now, we will go back and report to our principals.”

    Suswam said the Federal Government will meet the universities’ councils and vice chancellors this week to update them on the decisions taken so far and to urge them to certify those really entitled to the N30 billion to be released for the earned allowances.

    On whether the Federal Government is ready to shift ground from what it is offering, he said: “Well, let me say that negotiation is still on-going. The Federal Government has opted to also meet with the Councils and managements of the universities because earned allowance is something that can be certified by the management and councils of the universities.

    “Yes, if ASUU said this is the amount of money that the Federal Government is owing them and the government has shifted ground from its initial posture that there was no money to offering N30 billion, it means we are moving forward and with N100 billion available now for addressing the physical infrastructure deficit in our universities, I think the Federal Government has done quite well to have moved to where we are today.”

    Suswam added: “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. 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.

    “There is also N100 billion that is why myself, the Minister of Finance, the SGF, the ministers of Education, Labour, the Chief of Staff and the VP have just risen from a meeting to take some decisions that would end the strike and the President has instructed us as to what to do and he has shown a lot of commitments and launching of projects worth N100 billion in the 61 universities.

    “So, we are hoping that we will be able to see the end of the strike very soon if at the end of the day ASUU is satisfied with the measures that have so far been taken. The President has graciously agreed that in the first week of September, he will be able to launch the projects.

    “You also know that the procurement process will have to be followed and these projects include hostels in our universities, classrooms and lecture theatres, libraries and laboratories, among others. Some are renovations, some are new and all the 61 universities are going to benefit from one project or another.

    “So it is not going to be selective; all the universities are going to benefit from this infrastructural revitalisation of our universities,” he said.

     

  • APC to Fed Govt: meet ASUU’s demand without delay

    APC to Fed Govt: meet ASUU’s demand without delay

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has advised the Federal Government to honour its agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to enable the university teachers end the ongoing strike, which has paralysed academic activities in the nation’s public universities.

    In a statement yesterday in Abuja by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said no government worth its salt would play with education, because it is the path to national development.

    It said ASUU was not making any fresh demand beyond the agreement it reached with the government in 2009, adding: “Agreements are meant to be honoured, and breaching them comes with some consequences.”

    APC noted that the strike has kept students in public universities at home for many weeks, adding that this is a further blow to the country’s education system.

    The progressives’ party said Nigeria’s education system has deteriorated so much that none of the nation’s universities is currently listed among the top 100 universities in the world and only a few Nigerian universities are among the top 100 in Africa.

    It said: “The N87 billion, which ASUU is demanding, represents earned allowances, hence it 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 last eight years; or the frivolity involved in a government minister travelling to China to negotiate a $1 billion loan in a chartered jet (with its attendant costs) and with a retinue of workers who earned generous estacode in hard currency.

    “It is an indication of the kind of priority that this Federal Government attaches to education. While it has refused to meet its 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!