The Academic
Staff Union of Universities will meet on Monday (today) to deliberate on the
offers made by the Federal Government last Thursday in Abuja.
It was
gathered on Sunday that the union would meet at zonal levels nationwide, where
the members would determine whether to accept the offers made to them or not.
It was learnt the union would take a position
on the ongoing strike which had paralysed academic activities in state and
federal universities.
The
Chairman, UNIAbuja chapter of ASUU, Dr. Ben Ugheoke, confirmed that the union
would hold a crucial meeting on the labour action.
He explained
that after the zonal meetings, the decisions would then be communicated to the
national executive council of the union which would take a final position on
the issues.
“After the zonal meetings on Monday, the
outcomes of the meetings would go through another process before a final
decision is taken, it is a tortuous process,” Ugheoke explained.
The Federal
Government had during the meeting with the ASUU leadership in Abuja offered to
pay N23bn and a monthly payment of N1.5bn pending the outcome of the forensic
audit being carried out by the Ministry of Finance.
The
government had also yielded to other demands by the ASUU leadership led by its
President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, Vice-President, Emmanuel Osodeke, a former
union president, Dr. Dipo Fashina, and another member.
The
government team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige,
was said to have rejected the union’s demand for exemption of universities from
the Treasury Single Account.
Meanwhile,
ASUU has dismissed a statement credited to a former Minister of Education, Oby
Ezekwesili, in which she said the union’s demands were unrealistic.
The UNIAbuja
ASUU Chairman said she should propose realistic alternatives rather than
condemn the union’s demands which he said were meant to reform university
education in the country.
Ugheoke
explained that the N1.3tn university revitalisation fund would not go to ASUU,
noting that the union had proposed to the government how the money should be
utilised to ensure it did not end in private pockets.
The
university teacher said when Ezekwesili was trying to get the government to
privatise the unity schools as the education minister; she hinged her argument
on the poor state of the schools.
He wondered why she was condemning ASUU’s
demands which he described as “agitations for the poor.”
He said,
“What is unrealistic about ASUU’s demands? It means she was engaged in cheap
deceit of the highest order, she is unrealistic.
“Let her
state those demands she feels are unrealistic and then propose alternatives and
you would see that she would propose no alternatives other than raising of
school fees. That is what she is going to come up with.”
The News Agency of Nigeria had earlier
reported Ezekwesili on Sunday of saying that ASUU demands were unrealistic in
the light of the current economic situation in Nigeria.
The former
minster said the lasting solution to the crisis bedevilling the education
sector could only be found from strong analysis of the issues raised by ASUU
and evidenced-based policies.
“Money is
not limitless and yet everyone must acknowledge that investment in education is
crucial and it is key.
“There are,
however, some fundamental reforms that the sector needs in order to ensure that
it is not about the size of the funding but about the productivity of the
funding.
“You cannot
simply express a desire, it must be founded on reality and that means you must
know what can be achieved within a given period,” she said.
According to
her, a structural and policy change which allows public and private investments
should be integrated into the university system.
“If you
remember, the ASUU negotiation started in 2007 when I was the Minister of
Education and we constituted a government negotiation team, led by the late
Gamaliel Onosode.
“Even though
that period was short, one of the major issues for me was for us to make sure
that we were being evidenced-based in the way we were solving the problem.
“We
considered issues like the existing model in countries similar to us in
emerging economies,’’ she said.
The former
minister said the team also considered what could be done by the public and
private sectors about university funding among others.
“Those are
the kinds of evidences that we had and on the basis of which we hinged our
negotiation at that time,
“It was a
very short period and then we had to leave and the next government that took
over had to continue.
“I do not
know the basis of the final agreement they reached with ASUU, but if it was not
anchored on analytical evidence, I am not surprised that there has been
inability to implement it.”
Ezekwesili
urged both the Federal Government and ASUU to return to the negotiating table
and work on the basis of analysis and evidence to find a lasting solution to
the dispute.
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