FG To Give Varsities N1.1tn In Five Years

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.
http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-to-give-
varsities-n1-1tn-in-five-years/
Re: FG To Give Varsities N1.1tn In Five
Years
by musiwa112 : 1:55am
did you see any jonathan 1000 buses ..
1 Like
Re: FG To Give Varsities N1.1tn In Five
Years
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