About sixty-six days after university lecturers embarked on an indefinite strike, there appears to be no end to the industrial dispute as the government has insisted that the N30 billion is all that it could offer.
A reliable source who spoke with our reporter at the Presidency on Friday said the federal government was not considering increasing the amount beyond the amount it had offered to the lecturers on strike.
This is ASUU has again warned government against blackmail, stressing the need for it to implement the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement, to the letter. It will be recalled that negotiations between both parties broke down with both combatants refusing to yield ground.
While federal government’s negotiation team appealed to the university lecturers to, in the interest of students and the country, accept the N30 billion offer it made to them, as part of the N92 billion requested for “earned allowance”, the union said it would not call-off the strike, until the total amount was released. Besides, there is also another area of disagreement, which is the N92 billion to bridge infrastructure deficits in the country’s ivory towers.
The federal government had met with Pro-Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of federal universities, where modalities for the disbursement of a hundred billion, earlier raided by government team for universities’ infrastructure needs, were arrived at.
But, the president of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Fagge, faulted the manner of disbursement of the said amount, accusing government of not demonstrating enough transparency. Also speaking on the disbursement, the Benin zonal coordinator of ASUU, Dr. Sunny Ighalo, observed that: “The strike has indeed moved into a critical phase where government is now applying the instrument of intimidation and blackmail and other gimmicks to undermine the struggle.” He added that, “The purported disbursement… to universities arising from the meeting of Pro-Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors, was aimed at breaking our ranks, and is not acceptable to our union.”
In another development, Benue State governor and chairman of the federal government’s team on implementation of NEEDS Assessment in universities, Dr. Gabriel Suswam, stated that “the negotiation is becoming political”.
what do you expect from a government that is peopled by those who do not know the value of education?
ReplyDeleteASSU shld not allow govt to hijack the struggle. If Jona and his govt fail to implement the 2009 agreement. Aluta shld continua.
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