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.”
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