Federal
Government says it has deposited the N200bn promised as funding to universities
in an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin
Okupe and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission,
Prof. Julius Okojie, confirmed this on Tuesday.
The amount is for renewal of infrastructure in the nation’s public
universities.
Okupe, who featured on Channels Television programme ‘Sunrise Daily,’ said from
the government’s perspective, everything that needed to be done had been done.
According to him, many of the demands of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities have been agreed upon at the 13-hour meeting the union had with
President Goodluck Jonathan which ended in the early hours of October 4.
“At the end of that meeting, the government proposed that everything that has
been agreed should be put in a Memorandum of Understanding and that the two
parties should sign. But the leadership of ASUU declined and said instead of
that, they would rather have a letter expressing everything that has been
resolved therein, and that will suffice for them.”
Okupe stressed that the attitude of the ASUU leadership showed that the seed of
discord and evidence of bad faith already existed.
“It is unfortunate that somebody died but notwithstanding, that cannot be a
justification for delaying the implementation of an agreement for 21 or more
days.
At a briefing in Abuja, Okojie, who also said the money had been deposited in
CBN, noted that the Coordinating Minister of Economy and Minister of Finance,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had confirmed to him that the money had been deposited
in the CBN.
ASUU had requested evidence that the money had been released as a condition to
suspend the strike.
Okojie, who claimed that ASUU did not seek clarification from the commission,
however said, such money could not be distributed directly to universities.
“You don’t disburse such funds to institutions; it is not earned allowance. The
minister of finance said since they opened the account, the money had been
deposited there. If there was any doubt, NUC is here they (ASUU) could have
asked the question,” he said.
The NUC boss also revealed that government had directed vice-chancellors of
federal universities to extend the resumption deadline for lecturers to
December 9 to allow ASUU members to attend the burial ceremony of Prof. Festus
Iyayi.
Iyayi, a former ASUU president died in a motor accident on November 12 while
going to Kano for the union’s National Executive Council meeting.
The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, at a briefing in Abuja on
Thursday, had warned that any lecturer that failed to resume on or before
Wednesday (today) would be sacked.
But Okojie claimed that government was not aware of the burial arrangement when
the deadline was issued.
“Council has been directed to shift the deadline to December 9 to allow those
who have travelled to come back. That letter was only received yesterday from
the burial committee which I also forwarded to the Minister of Education”, he
said.
Okojie promised that lecturers that resumed by December 9 would be paid their
salary arrears.
“For those who resumed by December 9, their salary arrears will be paid. We
can’t pay someone who is on strike salary. In a democracy, those who want to
work should be allowed to work,” he added.
Okojie, who admitted that ASUU and the Federal Government discussed the issue
of renegotiation, maintained that it was not supposed to be included in the
Memorandum of Understanding as demanded by the union.
According to him, either of the parties could call for renegotiation at any
time.
Asked why the non-victimisation clause was not included in the MoU as pointed
out by ASUU, Okojie said the issue was not discussed at the meeting with the
President, so could not have formed part of the resolution.
He wondered why the union turned around to raise the issue when it “never
arose” at their meeting.
The NUC boss claimed that ASUU went away after the meeting with the President
with the mind that strike would be called off on Friday only “to come back to
say you (government) didn’t include it.”
“We are saying that if there was an issue, it would have been resolved. To come
back after three weeks means we are going back. The issue of non-victimisation
clause never arose,” he insisted.
He, however, promised that the government would not victimise anybody for his
role in the strike.
“Government is not going to victimise anybody. Because of the mood that day,
nobody thought about it. The President shook hands with everybody on that day.
The letter was written that night, they also vetted it.
“Government will not victimise anybody. If any government is going to do that
it is not Jonathan’s government”, he assured.
But ASUU President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, who said the decision had not been
communicated to the union, expressed doubt about the sincerity of government.
He wondered why government instead of responding to the letter of the union
went public that it had deposited the N200bn in the CBN.
He said, “What they are doing is that they will tell you something when in
actual fact they have not done anything. There were previous times when they
will call the public on a matter only for us to find out that it has not been
done. If they have done it, what is wrong in them answering our letter? Why are
they going to the public when we that they are supposed to respond to we don’t
know.”