ASUU Strike Update

 President Jonathan To Personally Intervene and Lead FG,
ASUU Talk.
Strong indications emerged Tuesday that
President Goodluck Jonathan may have
personally taken charge of efforts aimed at
getting striking university teachers back to work
soon.
Besides, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has
asked the Federal Government to honour its
agreement with the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) in order to end the industrial
action.Meanwhile, the Niger State Governor, Dr.
Babangida Aliyu, has appealed to the ASUU to
accept the offer made by the Federal
Government and call off the strike. He spoke at
the African Regional Centre of Enterprise
Workshop yesterday in Abuja.
And the Registrar/Chief Executive of Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB),
Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, has directed all universities
to conclude admissions on or before October 31,
2013.
Jonathan met yesterday for more than two
hours with the Federal Government’s officials
engaged in the negotiation with ASUU at the
Presidential Villa.
At the meeting were Vice President Mohammed
Namadi Sambo; Secretary to the Government of
the Federation (SGF) Anyim Pius Anyim; Benue
State Governor, Dr. Gabriel Suswam; Ministers
of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Education,
Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i and Labour, Chief
Emeka Wogu; Executive Secretary of the
National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof.
Julius Okojie, as well as the Chief of Staff to the
President, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe.
The previous negotiations between the Federal
Government team and the union on Tuesday
last week and Monday this week at the office of
the SGF failed to yield result as the teachers
insisted on the implementation of the 2009
ASUU/FGN agreement.
Briefing State House correspondents after the
meeting, Suswam, who chairs the
implementation committee of the NEEDS
Assessment panel of the universities, expressed
confidence that with measures so far put in
place by the Federal Government, there was
hope that the teachers might call off the strike
soon.
He also noted government’s readiness to make
available N30 billion out of the N87 billion being
demanded by ASUU to be disbursed as earned
academic allowances to the teachers, in
addition to the N100 billion for infrastructural
rehabilitation in the universities.
He confirmed that the Federal Government
would meet with the governing councils and
vice chancellors of federal universities before
the end of the week to inform them of the
decisions so far taken by the Federal
Government.
In a statement in Abuja yesterday by its Interim
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, APC said no government worth its
salt could afford to 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, stressing: ‘’Agreements
are meant to be honoured, and breaching them
comes with some consequences.’’
APC said the strike was a further blow to the
country’s educational system, which has
deteriorated so much that no Nigerian university
is currently listed in the top 100 universities in
the world and only a few of them have made
the top 100 in Africa.
The party added: ‘’The N87 billion that ASUU is
demanding represents earned allowances hence
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 past 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
cost) and with a retinue of staffers who earned
generous estacode in hard currency.
‘’It is an indication of the kind of priority that
this Federal Government attaches to education
that while it has refused to meet its own 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 yearly 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!
‘’What we are saying is that if the Federal
Government would reduce its profligacy and cut
waste, there will be enough money to pay
teachers in public universities, as well as fund
research and upgrade infrastructure in such
institutions. Hungry teachers can neither teach
well nor carry out research. And poorly-taught
students can neither excel nor propel their
nation to great heights.’’
Ojerinde spoke yesterday during the opening of
the first technical committee meeting on
2013/2014 admission to degree-awarding
institutions held at the University of Uyo, Akwa
Ibom State.
In attendance are officials saddled with
admissions into federal, state and private
universities whom the registrar charged to
strictly adhere to the dateline as late submission
would not be entertained by the board.
“I wish to inform you that the next admission
exercise for the
2013/2014 academic session will come up from
Monday, October 14 to Friday, October 18, 2013
at the board’s national headquarters, Bwari,
Abuja”, he said.
According to him, the selection for Nigerian
universities has to be done because of the
higher number of candidates who subscribed to
these institutions.
“It, therefore, implies that the next technical
meeting scheduled to hold at Adeyemi College
of Education, Ondo, from Monday, September
23 to Friday, September 27, will solely be for
admission into polytechnics, monotechnics,
colleges of education and innovative enterprises
institutions”, he added