Government and the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) will meet today in a last ditch
efforts to resolve the lingering crisis in the
University System. As a prelude to the meeting scheduled for
10.00a.m today, the Federal Government was
locked in a meeting with the Vice Chancellors of
the federal universities for about two hours on
Monday. Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom
Wike, after the closed door meeting declined
comment to newsmen, but told journalists that
the government would be meeting with the
leadership of ASUU today. Wike, who chaired the meeting held at the
auditorium of the National Universities
Commission (NUC), had said the meeting was a
normal interaction with the vice chancellors. Before the commencement of the meeting, Wike
excused journalists, personal assistants, his aides
and all others, except the vice chancellors,
ostensibly to prevent leakage of their
deliberations. However, Nigerian Tribune gathered that the
meeting was to see how the universities that have
been shut for about four months now could be
reopened to students as well as fine-tune
discussion on the position of the government
against the meeting with ASUU today. Wike had last week assured that the protracted
strike would soon be called off based on the
outcome of the last parley with ASUU leadership. Nigerian Tribune had reported that based on the
fresh agreement between the Federal Government
and ASUU, the leadership of ASUU was to go back
to brief its members at a meeting after the Eid-el-
kabir celebration. It was gathered, on Monday, that the meeting
today would afford the ASUU to report to the
government about the position of the union on
the offers by the Federal Government so far. The fresh accord struck by the Vice-President
Namadi Sambo with the union, government had
agreed to increase the N30 billion already
released for the payment of academic earned
allowance to N40 billion. According to sources, the government also agreed
that the N40 billion should be regarded only as
first instalment, and not a once-and-for-all
payment. The memorandum drafted at the of the meeting
indicated that the government would top it up
with further releases once universities are through
with the disbursement of N40 million. Accordingly, vice chancellors were urged to
expedite the disbursement within the shortest
possible time using guiding templates that have
been sent by the Committee of Vice Chancellors to
them. On the implementation of the Needs Assessment
to Nigerian Universities report, it was stated that
the government was cognisant and mindful of
the ability of universities to effectively and
efficiently utilise the N100 billion fund
immediately, hence that figure. “However, in addition to this N100 billion
dedicated and already to be made available for
2013, N200 billion (increased from N150 billion
previously agreed) will now be earmarked in the
2014 budget, as well as each of the following
three-four years until the universities are brought to world-class standard. Also, on project prioritisation, universities would
now be allowed to determine their priorities and
not be “rail-roaded” into implementing a pre-
determined set of projects with respect to the
NEEDS assessment. Decisions are not to be
centralised. The government also assured that the operations
of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)
would not be impaired, and that the regular
TETFund intervention disbursement to universities
woul continue, unaffected. “So, the NEEDS assessment capital outlays are in
addition to regular TETFund intervention.” Although, the President of ASUU, Dr Nasir Isa
Fagge, could not confirm the willingness of ASUU
to attend today’s meeting, but the Nigerian
Tribune gathered that zonal meetings of ASUU in
their various universities were held last week to
collate opinion of the members of the government offers.
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