Abuja – President Goodluck
Jonathan on Tuesday directed
the two Federal Government
committees negotiating the
requests by Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU), to take immediate measures at
ending the on-going strike. The Chairman of the Universities
Needs Implementation
Committee, Gov. Gabriel Suswam
of Benue, made this known
after a closed-door meeting of
the two committees and other stakeholders with President
Jonathan at the State House.in
Abuja. Vice-President Namadi Sambo,
the Chairman of the Earned
Allowance Committee and the
Secretary to the Government
of the Federation (SGF), Sen.
Anyim Pius Anyim were in attendance at the meeting. Jonathan Also in attendance were,
Ministers of Education, Prof.
Ruqayyat Rufai, Labour, Emeka
Wogu, the Executive Secretary
of National Universities
Commission, Prof. Julius Okogie and the Chief of Staff to the
President, Chief Mike Oghiadome. Speaking with State House
correspondents, Suswam said
that the meeting was
summoned by the President “to
take some decisions that would
end the strike’’. “The President has instructed
us, as to what to do, and he
has shown a lot of commitments
to flagging off projects worth
about N100 billion in all the
universities in the country, about 61 of them. “So, we are hoping that we will
be able to see the end of the
strike very soon. “At the end of the day, we
hope ASUU is satisfied with the
measures that have so far
been taken. “The federal government will
also be meeting with the
Universities Councils and Vice
Chancellors of our universities
within the week towards
updating them on some of the decisions taken,’’ he said. Suswam said about N100 billion
had been approved by the
Federal Government to his
committee to address
infrastructure deficit in all the
Universities. “The president has graciously
agreed that in the first week
of September he will be able to
flag-off the projects. “You also know that the
procurement process will have
to be followed and these
projects include hostels in our
universities, classrooms and
theatres, libraries and laboratories among others. “Some are renovation some are
new and all the 61 universities
are going to benefit from one
project or another. “So, it is not going to be
selective, all the universities are
going to benefit from this
infrastructural revitalisation of
our universities. The governor said that the
Earned Allowance Committee
being headed by the SGF, where
there were contentious issues,
would be addressed. “As you must have heard, the
federal government made an
offer of N30 billion to assist the
various Councils of our
universities to be able to pay
the earned allowances,’’ he said. The News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) recalls ASUU had rejected
the offer of the N30 billion by
government and stood on its
N87 billion demand to settle the
earned allowances. Asked whether government
would be willing to shift ground
on the ASUU insistence, Suswam
said negotiation was still on-
going, “The federal government has
opted to also meet with the
Councils and Managements of
the Universities, because Earned
Allowance is something that can
be certified by the management and councils of the universities. “I think that the government
has demonstrated some
substantial faith,’’ he said. NAN also recalls that the
meeting between the striking
university lecturers and the
federal government delegation
on Monday was reportedly
deadlocked. (NAN)

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K. Good move

Good president!