ASUU STRIKE: We ‘re yet to
receive N100bn from FG – VCs on october 16, 2013 at 9:34 pm
in news BY IKENNA ASOMBA
Seven weeks after the Federal
Government announced that it
has commenced
implementation of the
agreement signed with the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, by
disbursing N100 billion to each
of the 59 public universities,
the affected tertiary
institutions have raised alarm that they are yet to receive the
fund. The Governor Gabriel Suswan-
led Presidential
Implementation Committee on
Needs of Nigerian Universities
was said to have sourced the
fund within 16 days of its inauguration from the Central
Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Nigerian
National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, Nigerian
Communications Commission,
NCC, and other government agencies. The committee thereafter
adopted a sharing formula for
each of the university based on
student population and the
depth of infrastructural decay. The money was meant for the
refurbishment/renovation and
provision of new facilities such
as hostels, lecture theatres and
lecture rooms, laboratories and
libraries in the universities. Reacting to report that the
money has been released to
the universities, Vice
Chancellor of one of the
universities in the South East
said “the Federal Government has only sent us a memo
through the Ministry of
Education that we are getting
N650 million from the funds.
Until we get alert into the
university’s account, we will know how sincere the
government is but presently we
are yet to receive the money.” Similarly, the Vice Chancellor of
another university in the South
West disclosed that the N1.2
billion earmarked for his
university has not been paid
either as cheque or cash into the university’s account. It was gathered from the
committee that 13 Federal
universities have been left out
of the initial disbursement.
They are Federal University,
Gashua; Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State; Federal
University, Dutsin-ma, Katsina;
Federal University, Kashere,
Gombe State; Federal
University, Lafia, Nasarawa
State; Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi State; Federal
University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi
State; and Federal University,
Otuoke, Bayelsa State. Others
are FederalUniversity, Wukari,
TarabaState; FederalUniversity, Birnin-Kebbi, KebbiState;
FederalUniversity, Gusau,
ZamfaraState;
FederalUniversity, Oye-Ekiti,
EkitiState; and PoliceAcademy,
Wudil. Vanguard learnt that these
universities were left out
because they have just been
established by the present
administration between 2011
and 2013 which committed trillions of naira in their
establishment and that there
was no need for additional
funding. Five state universities that
were also unlucky are:
BukarAbbaIbrahimUniversity,
Damaturu, YobeState; North-
WestUniversity, KanoState;
SokotoStateUniversity; Tai Solarin University of Education,
Ijebu-Ode; OgunState;
TechnicalUniversity, Ibadan,
OyoState. Top five Federal universities
that got the lion’s share of the
money were: University of
Ibadan, UI, with students
population of 33,481 which got
N3.250 billion; University of Benin, UNIBEN, with students
population of 56,501 got
N3.200 billion; Ahmadu Bello
University, ABU, with students
population of 49,436 got
N3.200 billion; University of Port-Harcourt, UNIPORT, with
students population of 53,288
got N3.050 billion; while
University of Lagos, UNILAG,
with students population of
49,179 also got N3.050 billion, Also, the state universities that
benefitted are: Ebonyi State
University, EBSU, with students
population of 23,437 got
N3.050 billion; Niger Delta
University, NDU, Wilberforce Island with 12,793 students
population received N2.800
billion; Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
University, Katsina with
students population of 4,753
received N2.450 billion; Gombe State University, GSU, with
students population of 4,383
got N2.450 billion, whereas the
Lagos State University, LASU,
Ojo with the highest students
population of 90,885 among all the considered universities got
N1.300 billion.
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