Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has said
the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities may end
this week.
The minister disclosed this
during a briefing with reporters on the proliferation of illegal institutions
in the country, at the weekend in Abuja.
The ASUU have been on strike
since November 4th, 2018.
Malam Adamu said: “Perhaps by
next week I hope the ASUU strike will be over.”
But when contacted, the ASUU
President, Biodun Ogunyemi, in a text message, said the union was still
consulting on whether to end the strike or not.
According to him, the union wants
to take stock of what government have promised.
He said: “All I can say, for now,
is that we are still consulting. We need to take stock of government’s promises
in terms of aspects that have been fulfilled and what is left.
“The feedback and assessment of our members
will guide our response in subsequent engagements with government. We hope the
expectations of our membership would be met in the new week.
On whether the universities have
accessed the N15.89 billion released by the federal government, he said: “We
are cross-checking with the concerned universities. Until we confirm that all
the universities have received the money, I cannot confirm.
“And please note that ASUU does
not collect money from government, financial releases are made directly to
universities. That’s why we need confirmation.”
The government has been meeting
the university lecturers since the strike began.
However, one major issue that
keeps dragging the negotiations back and forth is the revitalisation of
universities.
At present, the government is yet
to release the N1.1 trillion it agreed to release as part of the funds for the
revitalization project.
The 2013 MoU stipulated that
public universities needed N1.3 trillion for a modest revitalisation.
The fund was to be released in
tranches of N200billion in 2013, N220billion 2014, N220billion 2015, 220billion
in 2016, N220billion in 2017 and N220billion in 2018.
Although the previous government
of Goodluck Jonathan released N200 billion in 2013 nothing has been released
since then.
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com