Good times appear to becoming for Federal Government-owned universities .
They are to have projects estimated to
cost N100 billion provided by government soon as part of the effort to
boost education at that level and arrest the decay of infrastructure in
the institutions.
President Goodluck Jonathan is to flag
off the projects by the end of this month or early next month, Governor
Gabriel Suswam of Benue State said yesterday.
Gov. Suswam is the Chairman of the
Universities Needs Implementation Committee set up by the Federal
Government to look into the issues raised by the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU) in its grievances with government.
Its members are currently on strike partly on account of the state of the infrastructure.
Briefing State House correspondents in
Abuja, Governor Suswam said the projects are towards resolving the
ASUU/FG crisis and ensuring adequate provision for the needs of
universities in the country.
He said each of the universities will have projects worth N1billion naira.
He said: “Once that is properly
coordinated, at least we will see results, and if the President flags
off these projects, worth N100 billion across universities which will be
inclusive of lecture theatres, classrooms and hostels, I’m sure you
know that the state of hostels and classrooms in our universities is
appalling and the President is determined and has given us this
assignment to make sure that that is done immediately.
“It will start with the sum of N1
billion and we set up a small committee which will report back to the
bigger committee on Tuesday for us to be able to select universities
across the six geopolitical zones where the president will decide to go
and fag off projects worth about N 1 billion and intend that that should
be the end of this month or first week of September because there are
processes that needed to carried out for us to achieve that.
”Already we have called all the funding
agencies and we have been holding meetings with them. What we are trying
to do is that all the money that agencies in their individual
capacities be harnessed together so that it will be well coordinated so
that we know that this is how much the federal government is spending on
our institutions on a yearly basis.”
On why the strike has not been called
off, Gov. Suswam said: ”That is one of the reasons why ASUU is even
on strike. Having said that, I want to say that the negotiation with
ASUU, in the next one or two weeks, we should be able to arrive at
something that will necessitate them calling off the strike, once we
are able to agree with them on all issues that they have raised.”
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Pls do something about the strike
ReplyDeletePLS DON'T DO ANYTIN
ReplyDeleteit is pathetic that Nigerian Govt only remember to do the right after a strike. Schools in Nigeria are in deplorable condition. I just hope that things trully happen as analysed by Govr Suswan. So that those who cannot sponsor their children abroad can still have an equivalent learning conditions in Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteit is pathetic that Nigerian Govt only remember to do the right after a strike. Schools in Nigeria are in deplorable condition. I just hope that things trully happen as analysed by Govr Suswan. So that those who cannot sponsor their children abroad can still have an equivalent learning conditions in Nigeria...
ReplyDeletemedicine after death. I wonder where the money was before?
ReplyDeleteASUU, pls dont ALLOW FG to deceive us, make SURE they award CONTRACTS & FLAG OFF the PROJECTS. In 2009 & 2011 they signed the MOU, but did NOTHING afterwards.
ReplyDeletePls let our STRIKE continues till FG fulfill their part of the 2009 AGREEMENT.