Govt makes offers to varsity teachers

There seems to be no end in sight to the
ongoing university lecturers' strike, with
the Federal Government saying yesterday
that the 2009 agreement it signed with
the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) cannot be implemented.
The union went on strike early in the
month over what it called the failure of
the government to fully implement the
agreement. It vowed not to go back to
work, until the government implements
the agreement.
The government said the complexity of
the agreement had been responsible for
the continued breakdown of negotiations
between the two parties.
Labour Minister Emeka Wogu stated this
while briefing the leadership of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the
activities of his ministry. It was at the
party's national secretariat in Abuja.
Wogu, however, said the government had
entered into another round of talks with
the varsity teachers, making some
undisclosed offers to the teachers.
"We have made offer to ASUU. It is as
complex as presented. Negotiation is
ongoing. The National Assembly is equally
involved. We believe they will soon call
off the strike. I personally and
passionately appeal to them to call off the
strike.
"It will not affect the negotiation, if they
call off the strike. It is better for them to
be inside than outside. Students have
equally appealed to them."
The minister added: "I inherited an
agreement signed by the Federal
Government with ASUU and that
agreement is practically impossible for
any administration to implement. We are
still discussing with them. If I leave here,
I am going to the Office of the Secretary
to the Government of the Federation
(SGF) where we are meeting with them. I
hope that very soon, we will resolve it."
Wogu expressed the government's
reservations about the agreement it
earlier signed with ASUU, which has
necessitated the setting up of yet another
negotiation team, headed by the
Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius
Anyim.
The nine-point agreement the
government entered into with ASUU
include: funding requirements for the
revitalisation of Nigerian universities;
Federal Government's assistance to state
universities; establishment of NUPEMCO;
and progressive increase in annual
budgetary allocation to the education
sector to 26 per cent between 2009 and
2020.
Other components of the agreement are:
payment of earned allowances;
amendment to the pension/retirement
age of academics non professorial cadre
from 65 to 70 years; and reinstatement of
prematurely dissolved Governing
Councils.
Also included in the agreement are:
transfer of Federal Government's landed
property to the universities and setting
up of research development councils and
provision of research equipment to
laboratories and classrooms in the
nation's universities.
On job creation efforts of the
government, Wogu told the PDP
leadership that the Community Service
Scheme Women and Youth Empowerment
Programme of the Subsidy Re-Investment
and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P)
of the Federal Government had already
engaged 120,000 persons out of the
185,000 targeted for employment this
year.
He said since social security is an evolving
structure, Nigeria is still basically trying to
grow the concept to an acceptable
international standard.
"We are at the stage of putting in place a
social security policy that would reflect
the nation's needs and level of economic
development, taking into consideration
the traditional as well as the modern
socio-cultural values and norms," he said.
With the passing of the Employee
Compensation Act in 2010, he said the
Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund was
resuscitated and currently functioning,
adding that it has the new mandate to
provide social security services to the
disadvantaged and vulnerable members of
the society.
Wogu said the National Directorate of
Employment (NDE) was in the fore-front
of job creation, especially in skills
acquisition and empowerment of
unemployed people.