The strike embarked upon by the Academic
Staff Union of Universities may be coming to an end as the striking
lectures and Federal Government have reached an agreement on seven key
areas.
Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige,
after the meeting with ASUU officials led by its President, Prof. Biodun
Ogunyemi stated that the government had made “substantial progress” in
its discussion with the union.
He said the government has
released N163 billion from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) to
satisfy some of the demands of ASUU.
Ngige said the union and
government had resolved most of the issues, adding that ASUU would need
to consult its members and then inform the government of its decision.
Ngige
said: “Today we have agreed to fund revitalization. Government has
released from TETFUND account about N163bn. The meeting will reconvene
at the instance of ASUU. FG is not weak in the negotiation. The strike
is not slipping out of our hands.
”We did not take a long time
than we anticipated. We have other commitments but the important thing
is that we have made substantial progress. We have reached some
agreements in seven areas.
“We have reached some agreements in
seven areas. Most of the issues have been resolved but ASUU will need to
consult its members and come with what they think. If you aggregate the
total amount of money involved, it is beyond N50bn.
“We are
paying in several compartments and these are debt from 2019 to 2012. We
have started defraying the earned allowances there and released N15.4bn
for shortfall in the payment of salaries.
Prof. Ogunyemi said discussion with the federal government will continue at a later date.
He said the union had not called off the strike.
Mr Ogunyemi said before the strike can be suspended, the government must address the issue of revitalization.
He said: “We have not suspended the strike, the discussion will continue at a later date.
“We
are going back to our members for further consultation. FG gave us
reaction to our proposals but there were still grey areas that we are
trying to sort out.
“Before the strike can be suspended, the most
critical area that FG must address is revitalization. It is central to
our academic work, unless that area is addressed, our members will still
have issues.
“We are not demanding for N50bn, we are saying that
the minimum that Fg can release to reactivate revitalization fund is
N50bn,” he added.
President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier ordered
Mr. Ngige, to end the over two-month-old strike by Nigerian university
teachers before the meeting with the university lectures commenced.
However, one major issue that keeps dragging the negotiations back and forth is the revitalisation of universities.
At
present, the government is yet to release the N1.1 trillion it agreed
to release as part of the funds for the revitalisation project.
The 2013 MoU stipulated that public universities needed N1.3 trillion for a modest revitalisation.
The
fund was to be released in tranches of N200billion in 2013, N220billion
2014, N220billion 2015, 220billion in 2016, N220billion in 2017 and
N220billion in 2018.
Although the previous government of Goodluck Jonathan released N200 billion in 2013 nothing has been released since then.
