We’ve deposited N200bn varsity funds in
CBN – FG
DECEMBER 4, 2013 BY KAMARUDEEN
OGUNDELE
81 Comments
Nasir Fagge and Goodluck Jonathan
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.”
Copyright PUNCH.