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.”
http://www.punchng.com/news/weve-deposited-n200bn-varsity-funds-in-cbn-fg/