The federal government says it
has released N163 billion to universities from the Tertiary Education Trust
Fund (TETFund).
Chris Ngige, minister of labour
and employment, said this while addressing journalists after a meeting with
leaders of Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) on Monday.
ASUU has been on strike since
November 2018 to press home demands such as the shortfall in salaries of some
federal universities’ workers and lecturers, earned allowances, revitalisation
of universities, among others.
“Government has released about
N163 billion from TETFund account to universities,” Ngige said.
“Most of the issues have being
resolved, so they are going to go back to their members and present
government’s offer to their council.”
Ngige also said the striking
lecturers were not asking for N50 billion before they would call off the
strike.
He, however, added that if the
total amount of the union’s demand was aggregated it would be more than the N50
billion as the government was paying in different compartments.
“These are debts of 2009, owed by
the past administration, that is 2009 to 2012, so it is not our own debt and we
have been doing a lot to settle these debts.
“So, we will be reconvening at
the instance of ASUU. They said they want to go and consult with their members
and they cannot call off the strike without consulting with their members,’’ he
said.
Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU president,
said there were still some grey areas in the proposal presented by the federal
government.
He said the union would look at
the grey areas and would get back to the government.
“The most critical area is the
revitalisation, because it is central to our work, as academics and unless that
area is addressed our members will have issues with ongoing action,” he said.
“We also did not ask for N50
billion, we are saying that the minimum we expect government to release in
order to reactive the revitalisation fund is N50 billion. So, the strike is
still on.”
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