The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba,
on Monday, said resources were not enough to meet all the demands of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities at once.
This is as the minister faulted claims of the union that the
Federal Government was blackmailing it.
Recall that ASUU had given the Federal
Government a three-week ultimatum on November 15, 2021 to honour the agreement
it signed with the union, which led to the suspension of the strike by
university lecturers in December 2020.
Some of the demands are the payment of earned allowances, payment of revitalisation funds to universities, creation of visitation panels and implementation of the University Transparency Accountability Solution instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System for the payment of workers in the ivory towers, among others.
The minister told one of our correspondents on Monday that
the Federal Government did not have enough resources to meet all the union’s
demands at once.
He said, “We cannot possibly be blackmailing them; we tried
to explain to them that we will fulfil the agreements when we have the
resources. Agreements have been signed and they are meant to be fulfilled.
“But we do not have all the resources to meet all the
demands at once. The thing is that we all are working together – ASUU and the
Federal Government. The goal is to produce graduates, who will serve Nigeria,
and to make sure that the academic calendar is running smoothly.
“So, the government will always pay its dues; you do not
have to go on strike to drive home your points. They need to know that it is
not the government versus ASUU. It is about doing what is right. Let us use the
resources as they come. There are lots of sectors that need attention.
“All we are saying is that once there are resources, we will
meet your needs; all you have to do is to keep the academic calendar running.
So, please, where is the blackmail?”
However, ASUU said it would not go on strike yet even though
the government had failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in
the 2009 agreement and the subsequent Memorandum of Understanding and
Memorandum of Action between it and the Federal Government.
This was the outcome of the meeting of the ASUU National
Executive Council in Abuja to review the implementation of the Memorandum of
Action of December 23, 2020.
The National President, ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said in
an interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday, “It is certain, we are
not going on strike. ASUU is not going on strike; every other information will
be in our press release.”
A statement made available on Monday titled,
‘Enough of the blackmail’, and signed by Osodeke said the NEC resolved to
review the situation at a later date.
The statement read in part, “NEC concluded that the
government has failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the
2009 FGN-ASUU agreement and subsequent MoU and MoA. However, considering the
ongoing intervention and consultation efforts, NEC resolved to review the
situation at a later date with a view to deciding on the next line of action.
“NEC was worried by
the spirited efforts of government agents to reduce the demands of ASUU to a
regime of intermittent payment of watered-down revitalisation fund and release
of distorted and grossly devalued earned academic allowances.
“NEC condemns in strong terms the surreptitious moves to
pooh-pooh our demands on the review of the NUC’s Act to curb the proliferation
of universities by state governments, which are not funding the existing ones;
adoption of the University Transparency Accountability Solutions with
concurrent discontinuance of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information
System and distortion in salary payment; release of accumulated promotion
arrears; and the review and signing of the draft document on the renegotiation
of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement.
“ASUU shall not relent in demanding improvement in the
welfare and conditions of service of our members.”
It added that ASUU would resist any attempt to blackmail the
union and derail their patriotic struggle for a productive university system by
official propaganda founded on tokenism and crumb-sharing.
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