ASUU STRIKE: We ‘re yet to receive N100bn from FG – VCs

Seven weeks after the Federal Government
announced that it has commenced
implementation of the agreement signed with
the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
ASUU, by disbursing N100 billion to each of the 59 public universities, the affected tertiary
institutions have raised alarm that they are yet
to receive the fund. The Governor Gabriel Suswan-led Presidential
Implementation Committee on Needs of
Nigerian Universities was said to have sourced
the fund within 16 days of its inauguration
from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC,
and other government agencies.



The committee thereafter adopted a sharing
formula for each of the university based on
student population and the depth of
infrastructural decay. The money was meant for the refurbishment/
renovation and provision of new facilities such
as hostels, lecture theatres and lecture rooms,
laboratories and libraries in the universities. Reacting to report that the money has been
released to the universities, Vice Chancellor of
one of the universities in the South East said
“the Federal Government has only sent us a
memo through the Ministry of Education that
we are getting N650 million from the funds. Until we get alert into the university’s account,
we will know how sincere the government is
but presently we are yet to receive the money.” Similarly, the Vice Chancellor of another
university in the South West disclosed that the
N1.2 billion earmarked for his university has
not been paid either as cheque or cash into the
university’s account. It was gathered from the committee that 13
Federal universities have been left out of the
initial disbursement. They are Federal
University, Gashua; Federal University, Dutse,
Jigawa State; Federal University, Dutsin-ma,
Katsina; Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State; Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State;
Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi State; Federal
University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State; and
Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State.
Others are FederalUniversity, Wukari,
TarabaState; FederalUniversity, Birnin-Kebbi, KebbiState; FederalUniversity, Gusau,
ZamfaraState; FederalUniversity, Oye-Ekiti,
EkitiState; and PoliceAcademy, Wudil. Vanguard learnt that these universities were
left out because they have just been
established by the present administration
between 2011 and 2013 which committed
trillions of naira in their establishment and that
there was no need for additional funding. Five state universities that were also unlucky
are: BukarAbbaIbrahimUniversity, Damaturu,
YobeState; North-WestUniversity, KanoState;
SokotoStateUniversity; Tai Solarin University of
Education, Ijebu-Ode; OgunState;
TechnicalUniversity, Ibadan, OyoState. Top five Federal universities that got the lion’s
share of the money were: University of Ibadan,
UI, with students population of 33,481 which
got N3.250 billion; University of Benin, UNIBEN,
with students population of 56,501 got N3.200
billion; Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, with students population of 49,436 got N3.200
billion; University of Port-Harcourt, UNIPORT,
with students population of 53,288 got N3.050
billion; while University of Lagos, UNILAG, with
students population of 49,179 also got N3.050
billion, Also, the state universities that benefitted are:
Ebonyi State University, EBSU, with students
population of 23,437 got N3.050 billion; Niger
Delta University, NDU, Wilberforce Island with
12,793 students population received N2.800
billion; Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University, Katsina with students population of 4,753
received N2.450 billion; Gombe State
University, GSU, with students population of
4,383 got N2.450 billion, whereas the Lagos
State University, LASU, Ojo with the highest
students population of 90,885 among all the considered universities got N1.300 billion.