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By 
2:24 AM
Universities have given the Federal Government
certain conditions to be met before the union
could call off its four-month old strike.
Part of this condition, Saturday PUNCH learnt, is
that all federal parastatals in charge of fund,
labour, and education must sign the agreement
purportedly reached between its leadership and
the Federal Government on Tuesday.
A prominent member of the union, who craved
anonymity because he was not authorised to
speak on behalf of the union, told Saturday
PUNCH that doing this would give the
association the confidence that “the Federal
Government knows what it is doing when it
signed the agreement.”
He said, “I must tell you that our mandate
remains. The only mandate we have is that
2009 agreement must be met. We have not
reached any agreement with the Federal
Government.
“Since the Federal Government wants to be
releasing N220bn every year for five years, then
all monetary and regulatory agencies must sign.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministries of
Finance and Labour, National Assembly, Office
of the Presidency, National Universities
Commission, Tertiary Education Trust Fund,
Trade Union Congress and our umbrella body,
the Nigeria Labour Congress, must sign with
consequences stated.
“The reason we will ensure this is that we don’t
want argument tomorrow that the agreement
was entered in error or that they don’t know the
implication of signing the agreement. If possible,
documents that will provide for automatic
deduction of the agreed money at a particular/
agreed date must be provided.”
The leadership of the union had engaged in a
13-hour marathon meeting with government
delegation led by President Goodluck Jonathan
in Abuja between Monday and Tuesday.
Though it was generally perceived that both
ASUU and the Federal Government achieved
breakthrough in negotiation for the first time
after the lengthy meeting with the President,
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the lecturers might
not be in a hurry to go back to class. Another
source close to ASUU who was also part of the
marathon meeting with the President in Abuja,
said there was nothing new in what the
President promised members of the union.
According to him, government had always failed
in implementing agreements reached with
ASUU. He said, “Truly the President sat down for
more than 13 hours with us. He told us that we
were not leaving the venue until the issues were
resolved. The Federal Government also
promised to inject funds into the system, but a
promissory note is not enough.
“Where would the money come from? There is
no assurance that government will provide
money especially with the mop-up policy in
place that ensures that unspent money is
refunded to government’s coffers at the end of
every year.’’
Asked when the lecturers would call off the
strike, he said, “I doubt if the strike is ending
soon. The problem is with the Finance Minister.
Where is government getting N1trn from? A
government that could not implement
agreement between 2009 and 2013, what is the
guarantee that they would honour this
agreement.
“It is all politics. We are still awaiting directives
from our branches. We have told them the
outcome of the meeting with the President but
we are waiting for them to tell us what they
think of government’s proposal.
“Imagine the Minister of Education has travelled
out of the country.
He was appointed Vice President for UNESCO
General Assembly. How can he travel out of the
country without resolving the crisis in the
education sector?’’
He said the Federal Government should spend
the trillions of dollars in its Sovereign Wealth
Fund to finance university education and
improve infrastructure in the country.
A key component of the agreement reached by
both ASUU and the Federal Government was
that government would inject N1.1trn into public
universities in the next five years. Government
is expected to inject N220bn yearly into the
public university sector beginning from 2014.
But government said it could only release
N100bn this year, noting that the amount had
already been processed.
The Federal Government also indicated that the
N1.1trn would be domiciled at the Central Bank
of Nigeria to show its commitment to the
agreement. The money is expected to be
released on quarterly basis to the universities so
that there won’t be any problem about funding
the deal.
The National Universities Commission and the
Trade Union Congress will be the joint
guarantors of the agreement while the Minister
of Education will be the implementing officer.
Government, according to sources at the
meeting, also agreed to revamp public
universities by ensuring that all the issues that
always lead to strike are dealt with once and for
all.
Asked to confirm if lecturers were planning to
call off their strike, ASUU Chairman, University
of Calabar branch, Dr. James Okpiliya, said the
local chapter was yet to get formal briefing on
the meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.
He, however, said the union would make its
position known to the press on the President’s
offer after the end of a meeting scheduled for
mid-night Thursday.
Also, Chairman of ASUU in Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Adegbola Akinola, said
that members must be properly briefed on the
resolution between the Federal Government and
representatives of ASUU in the last marathon
meeting.
He said the only condition that could make its
members accept any offer would be the
provision of necessary documents.
He said, “The NEC meeting may not hold now. It
is the local congress that is expected to hold
first which is either tomorrow or Monday.
“Our members are not yet briefed about the
details, so it is when we meet that we will know
the details and then discuss whether what we
got is sufficient enough to justify our action or
demand.
“I can’t really pre-empt the mind of other
members. But if we are to accept any offer,
there must be document to back that up. We
need to obtain documents on that. Maybe if
there is a document, people may look at it
critically.”
However, the Federal Government said it would
include the N1.1trn promised ASUU in the
education budget starting from next year. It also
said it was waiting for the union to know the
next step to take.
The Director, Press and Public Relations of the
Ministry of Education, Mr. Olu Lipide, told one of
our correspondents on Thursday that
government was waiting for ASUU to take the
necessary steps.
Meanwhile, the Dean of Social Sciences,
University of Lagos, Prof. Omololu Soyombo, has
said that the general ASUU body must agree
before the strike could be called off.
He said, “It is difficult to believe the President
but we give him the benefit of doubt.
We believe that the President is noble, the ASUU
president promised to give him a feedback. If
this had been done earlier, the strike wouldn’t
have extended for so long.”
Corroborating his view, the Chairman, Lagos
State University, ASUU, Dr. Jamiu Oluwatoki
said, “It won’t be long again. By next week
there should be a NEC meeting and
subsequently the congress meetings before the
president can call off the strike.”
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