FG to give varsities N1.1tn in five years

Details of the Monday/ Tuesday
marathon meeting between President
Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of
Academic Staff Union of Universities
have begun to emerge.
The PUNCH gathered on Tuesday
evening that a key component of the
agreement reached by the parties was
that the Federal Government would
inject N1.1tn into public universities in
the next five years.
A reliable source, who made this known,
also hinted that the strike would be
called off anytime next week.
He said the government team which
was led by President Goodluck Jonathan
would release N220bn yearly into the
sector beginning from 2014.
The source added, “The meeting should
be the longest that we have ever had on
this crisis but I can tell you that both
parties were frank all through the
discussions.
“The parties also showed commitment
towards ending the crisis. The President
in particular showed that he was serious
about ending the strike and that was
why he offered to release over N1tn to
the universities in the next five years.
“The money will be released on a yearly
basis at N220bn per annum beginning
from 2014. For the outgoing year, the
government will only release N100bn
and this has been processed.”
He said that the government, in order
to show its commitment to a fresh pact,
accepted that “the fund(N1.1tn)
should domiciled at the Central Bank
of Nigeria”
“The money will be released on a
quarterly basis to the universities. So,
there won’t be any problem about
funding the deal,” the source said.
The National Universities Commission
and the Trade Union Congress, according
to him, will be the joint guarantors
of  the agreement while the Minister of
Education will be the implementation
officer.
The source also said that the
government agreed among other
things, to revamp the public universities
by ensuring that all those issues that
always led to strike were dealt with
once and for all.
It was learnt that the negotiating team
of ASUU led by Dr. Nassir Faggae met
on Tuesday night to further deliberate
on the deal.
Though the details of the meeting
were not known as of 11.22pm on
Tuesday, it was gathered that ASUU
might call a National Executive Council
meeting on or before Saturday where
the deal would be tabled before all
its  branch executives.
Jonathan had while shaking hands with
Fagge after the marathon meeting in
the Presidential Villa, Abuja said, “My
President, I hope it (strike) will end
today(Tuesday). Our children have
suffered enough. We must find a
solution.”
All those in attendance responded with
a loud “Amen.”
When greeting Omar, he said, “My
President with you around, there will be
no problem; our agreement is signed,
sealed and delivered.”.
Faggae told State House correspondent
on his way out of the Villa, that his
team would take back a message to
varsity teachers before a decision
would be taken on the next line of
action.
“We had a lengthy meeting with Mr.
President, and we looked into how best
to address the problem of university
education in this country. We now have
a message from Mr. President that we
are going to take to our members and
we are expecting that our members will
respond appropriately to his message,”
he said.
Fagge added that since the message
was meant for members, he would not
divulge it to the press.
When asked whether university
teachers would be called upon  to return
to the classrooms, he said that the
decision was left for them  to take.
When further asked if he was impressed
by the President’s message, Faggae
cautioned journalists against putting
words in his mouth, insisting that only
ASUU members would determine that.
The Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka
Wogu, who listened to Faggae’s
encounter with journalists, later said
progress was made during the
discussion.
He said, “We made progress. The
President of ASUU told you that they are
going back with a message from the
Federal Government back to their
members and the message is full of high
expectation and hope.”
When asked whether ASUU would call
off the strike, Wogu said that was why
he described the message as full of
expectation.
“Our prayer is that they will come back
with positive outcome. They might even
not come back to meet us. They might
take decision there that will meet your
expectations “ he said.
He added that the offers made by the
government during the meeting were
those that were in line with the
contentious  2009 agreement.
He said since the issues that led to the
strike bordered on the 2009 agreement,
the government did not go beyond the
pact.
The President was joined at the meeting
that started at 2.40pm on Monday by
Vice-President Namadi Sambo; Minister
of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; the
Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim; the
Supervising Minister of Education,
Nyesom Wike; Wogu among others.
Faggae led the union team which
included past presidents such as Prof.
Abdulahi Sule-Kano, Prof. Dipo Fashina
and Prof. Festus Iyayi.
President of the Nigeria Labour
Congress, Abdulawahid Omar and his
Trade Union Congress counterpart,
Bobboi Kaigama, also attended.
Other members of the delegation were
Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, Prof. Victor
Osodeke, Prof. Suleiman Abdul, Dr.
Victor Igbum and Mr. Michael
Odunmoraye.
The marathon meeting was the first
between ASUU and Jonathan since the
strike started. The Presidency took
over the negotiations with ASUU on
September 19  with Sambo  in charge.