•61 varsities to get N100b
THERE seems to be no way out of the teachers’
strike that has crippled the universities.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) is pushing for, among others, better
pay, but Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iwela said yesterday that the Federal
Government has no resources to meet the
union’s demands.
The strike is five weeks old. Mrs Okonjo-Iwela
said the lecturers were asking for N92 billion
in extra allowances, but maintained that the
government has no such cash.
Speaking in Minna at the yearly National
Council on Finance and Economic Development
(NACOFED) with the theme: “Restructuring
Nigeria’s Finances”, the minister said the ASUU
demand was coming when government was
making efforts at reducing the structure of
public expenditures.
Her words: “At present, ASUU wants the
government to pay N92bn in extra allowances
when resources are not there and when we are
working to integrate past increases in pensions.
We need to make choices in this country as we
are getting to the stage where recurrent
expenditures take the bulk of our resources
and people get paid but can do no work.”
If the demands of the university lecturers are
met and “we continue to pay them salaries and
allowances, we will not be able to provide
infrastructure in the universities”, Mrs Okonjo-
Iweala said.
The minister argued that when she assumed
office, “the share of recurrent expenditure in
our total budgets had increased
astronomically”.
“In fact, recurrent expenditures accounted for
about 77.2 per cent of the federal budget and
we are now working to re-balance this ratio,”
She said.
Maintaining that Nigeria is still suffering from
the effect of the 2010 increase in salaries, Mrs
Okonjo-Iweala asked “if we want to get to a
stage in this country that all the money we
earn is used to pay salaries and allowances?”
She lamented also that Nigeria’s over
dependence on oil has resulted in
deterioration of non-oil tax, noting that in
1970 non-oil taxes accounted for 74 per cent
of the country’s revenues, but by 2012 it had
declined to only 30% of Federal Government
revenues.
“Many states and local governments are also
dependent on monthly revenue allocation from
the central government. On average, only 11
per cent of sub-national revenue was obtained
from internally generated sources.”
She said the volume of external and internal
debts of the country had been increasing. “In
fact in August 2006 when I left office, we had
a total of $17.3bn, comprised $3.5bn in
foreign debt and $13.8bn in domestic debt.
The minister went on: “By 2011 when I
returned to office, the total debt stood at
$47.9bn and the domestic debt had grown to
about $42.3bn’.
The minister, however, said the Federal
Government had taken measures to revamp the
economy, adding that these measures had
started yielding fruitful dividends in direct
capital investment in the country and in
establishment of industries and agro-based
firms.
Niger State Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu,
represented by his deputy, Ahmed Ibeto, asked
the Federal Government to plug all the areas of
wastages in the oil sector of the economy and
check pipeline vandalisation across the
country.
Aliyu suggested that Nigeria should put more
emphasis on the non-oil sector, particular
agriculture, now that many countries have
discovered and are now refining oil.
The Federal Government Committee on the
needs assessment report in Nigerian
Universities yesterday reached an agreement
with representatives of ASUU on the decaying
infrastructure in universities. This follows the
adoption the Technical Committee’s report.
The Committee chaired by Benue State
Governor Gabriel Suswam which rose from a
long meeting at the Benue Governor’s lodge
Asokoro, Abuja, last night said it had reached
an agreement with ASUU to deploy N100
billion for provision of infrastructure on the
campuses of 61 universities covered in the
needs assessment report earlier carried out by
a committee of the Federal Government.
Based on the agreement therefore, the only
matter in contention is the issue of the earned
allowances which Governor Suswam assured
would be dealt with on Monday. since the
Federal Government has made substantial offer
to the striking lecturers.
The Technical Committee chaired by Dr Banfa,
a nominee of ASUU had proposed in it’s report
that the N100billion be shared to all the
61Federal and state universities for
intervention in the areas of rehabilitation and
construction of lecture theatres and lecture
halls; renovation and construction of libraries
and laboratories and rehabilitation and
construction of hostels.
According to Dr Banfa, the 61 universities
were categorised into four based on the size of
students enrollment.
Suswam said President Goodluck Jonathan had
agreed to flag off the construction of projects
under the N100billion stimulus package in a
University to be selected to symbolise the
commencement of construction work in all the
universities. He said the new projects to be
undertaken would be standardised such that all
the Universities will enjoy similar facilities in
terms of the new projects.
“I am confident that very soon the students
will resume. As a leader in this country, I am
worried about the strike, Mr President is
absolutely worried and everybody is concerned
that the students should not stay at home
more than necessary” he stressed.
The Implementation Committee meeting was
attended by the Ministers of Education, Labour
and Productivity, and other education funding
agencies of the Federal Government including
the Central Bank of Nigeria, NNPC, PTDF,
NITDA, NCC, TetFund among others as well as
the President of ASUU.
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