ASUU Strike: FG releases N30bn to ASUU, says it has met ‘almost’ all their demands

The Federal Government on Tuesday
claimed it had met almost all the
demands of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities after releasing an additional
N30 billion to the union.
Gabriel Suswam, Chairman of the
National Economic Empowerment
Development Strategy (NEEDS)
assessment implementation committee
for universities, said that the Ministry of
Education would disburse the fund to the
various universities for the payment of
lecturers’ allowances.
While appealing to ASUU to shelve its
industrial action, Mr. Suswam frowned at
the union’s claims that the earlier
disbursement of N100 billion by the
government for infrastructures in the
universities was done without
consultations.
Last week, the ASUU leadership
expressed concerns that a clear
procedure for assessing the funds by the
universities is yet to be defined.
Nasir Fagge, ASUU President, had
insisted that only the provision of N500
billion would meet the immediate needs of
the universities.
“We observe that the Committee is so far
mentioning only N100 billion. If the
implementation is to be related to the
funding requirements in the 2009 ASUU/
FGN Agreement and the January 2012
MoU, what is due for 2012 and 2013 is
N500 billion, not N100 billion,” Mr. Fagge
had said.
But Mr. Suswam said ASUU was carried
carried along in the entire process where
N100 billion was agreed.
“ASUU participated in all the meetings
where it was agreed to raise N100 billion,
which has already been distributed to all
the universities,” said Mr. Suswam,
Governor of Benue State.
“In fact, the president of ASUU nominated
one Dr. Baffa, who is very resourceful. He
did all the work, and presented the criteria
for distribution of the money which is
based on the population of each
university,” Mr. Suswam added.
The Benue State governor added that
after drawing up the draft, the Committee
sent the document to ASUU for their
perusal.
“Instead, they wrote me a letter accusing
the committee of insincerity. The councils
are the ones that would verify what we
are owing, go and ask them, ASUU said
no, that unless we put N92 billion on the
table,” Mr. Suswam said.
Mr. Suswam said that governing councils,
and not his committee, would be
responsible for awarding contracts in the
universities, adding that the lecturers’
strike has assumed a political dimension.