to return to the classrooms, a senator claimed
yesterday.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) has been on strike for about four
months.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije,
mentioned the figure in his contribution to a
motion urging the lecturers to call off their
strike.
The motion, sponsored by the Senate Leader,
Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (Cross River
Central) and 106 others is titled "Appeal to
Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off
the strike and return to work".
Chukwumerije, who read the controversial
2009 agreement between the Federal
Government and ASUU, said part of the
component of the agreement on funding
stipulated that "all regular Federal universities
shall require N1.5 trillion for the period 2009
to 2011.
He said ASUU was insisting that the agreement
be implemented to the letter.
He said that the agreement also said "this
money is to be paid in three installments,
2009 almost N500 billion; 2010 almost N500
billion; 2011 almost N506 billion".
Besides the N1.5 trillion, the agreement also
stipulated that "each state university shall
require N3.6 million" while "a minimum of 26
per cent of the annual budget should be
allocated to education".
According to him, the agreement also said that
"Education should be put on First Line Charge"
and the Education Tax Act should be amended
to its original concept as High Education
Fund."
He noted that the agreement said that
"Governing Council of Universities should
access and effectively utilise the Education Tax
Fund for research, training and development
of academic staff".
Other components of the agreement include
Salary Structure and earned allowances.
The earned academic staff allowances include:
"Post graduate supervision allowances;
Teaching practice and industrial allowances;
honorarium for external moderation of
undergraduate and postgraduate examination
system, postgraduate study grants; external
assessment of readers or professors, Call duty
and clinical duty and hazard allowance and
excess workload allowance."
Other demands include "non salary condition
of service, which includes clinical load, car
refurbishing, housing loan, research leave,
sabbatical leave, sick leave, maternity leave,
injury pension, provision of office
accommodation and facilities."
Pension of university academic staff and
compulsory retirement age, National Health
Insurance Scheme, transfer of landed property,
patronage of university services, funds from
alumni associations, private sector
contributions, cost saving measures, duty free
importation of education materials by
universities and setting up research
development units by companies operating in
Nigeria, were also part of the agreement.
Also setting up of budget monitoring
committee, University post doctoral
fellowship, which says that each university
governing council should introduce post
doctoral fellowship leave with pay outside
Nigeria, Provision for teaching and research,
national research funds, University autonomy
and academic freedom, membership of
governing councils, review of laws that impend
university autonomy, academic freedom in
terms of accountability and transparency and
No Sole Administrators for universities, were
included in the agreement..
Chukwumerije said there were in the agreement
ambiguities that should have been avoided.
Ndoma-Egba noted that on July 1, ASUU began
a strike to protest the failure of the Federal
Government to implement the 2009 agreement
signed with the union for the proper funding
of the universities.
He said for upwards of four months, the strike
has paralysed work in universities and
rendered students redundant.
He observed that while the Federal Government
may have released N100billion for
infrastructure development in the universities
and N30billion for accumulated allowances of
lecturers, the lecturers have rejected the
gesture as being grossly inadequate.
The Senate Leader observed that despite
several negotiations between the striking
lecturers and representatives of the Federal
Government coupled with the intervention of
prominent Nigerians for the parties to reach a
compromise, the strike has persisted.
Ndoma-Egba is worried that "this is one strike
too many and the entire education is grinding
to a halt, considering that not only is ASUU,
the Academic Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) is
on strike and the Colleges of Education
Academic Staff Union (COEASU) recently
embarked on a seven days warning strike, all
separately pressing for demands not
unconnected with funding."
He added that he is disturbed further that
"after about four months of fruitless
negotiations between the ASUU and the Federal
Government over the strike, there are strong
indications that the Federal Government may
have commenced the implementation of the
'No Work, No Pay' rule, a development that
may further compound amicable resolution of
the dispute."
He urged the Senate to resolve to appeal to the
striking lecturers to suspend the strike and
return to work to prevent further devaluation
of Nigeria's educational fortunes.
He prayed the upper chamber to mandate the
Committee on Education to continue to liaise
with the Federal Ministry of Education, the
National Universities Commission, ASUU and
all other stakeholders to proffer a lasting
solution to strikes in the sector.
He urged the Senate to mandate the Senate
President, David Mark to engage President
Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of ASUU
to resolve the crisis.
The three prayers were unanimously adopted.
Mark who summed up senators' contributions,
said: "The essence of this motion is to find a
solution and a way forward. I have listened to
all those that have spoken so far.
"There are immediate problems that we need
to tackle yesterday and some that we need to
plead with all the parties involved to give time
so that they can sort it out.
"My personal appeal on behalf of the Senate to
all the parties involved will be that they try to
understand.
"Let us shift ground in our understanding of
the problem and find a solution because if all
the parties involved just dig in and they say
they won't shift ground, then there will be no
solution to it and Nigeria will be worse off for
it.
"Whether it is the executive, the legislature or
the judiciary or ASUU, not shifting ground is
not going to help to find a lasting solution to
the problem.
"I want to appeal to ASUU and in fact let me
even use the words, I want to beg ASUU on
behalf of the Senate that they resume and
come back to work.
"They have made a strong case. Their position
is obvious now. We can now see the
consequences of their action and I think if
they extend it beyond this then they will begin
to lose public sympathy.
"I will personally beg them if that is the way
that they think will help them to get back to
work.
"There is no winner, there is no loser in this
exercise. As long as the strike continues,
nobody will win and everybody will lose.
"So if we look at it from the perspective of
saying yes, ASUU will win and the executive
will win then we are missing the point
completely.
"It is not a question of a winner or a loser, all
of us will lose. ASUU will lose, the country will
lose and we will lose and we don't want to find
ourselves in that type of situation.
"All of you have spoken very well. It is not a
matter of PDP, APC or any other political
party. We are all Nigerians and if we don't
build a solid foundation in our education
system, we are going to lose at the end of the
day.
Mark spoke of research as the pillar of
national development, which, in his view,
"must be hinged purely on education not on
oil, not even on the amount of money that we
get.
"Listening to the agreement that was signed by
the Federal Government as Comrade Uche
Chukwumerije read out, I was really wondering
whether this was signed or it was just a
proposal.
"But when he concluded, he said it was signed.
It only shows the level of people the Executive
sent to go and negotiate on their behalf
because ab initio, people must be told the
truth, what can be accomplished and what
cannot be accomplished.
"If a leader says I am going to accomplish this,
he is morally bound to honour it. But, even if
you decided immediately after that you cannot
accomplish it, I think it is only proper for you
to go back and start renegotiating.
"But if you prolong it on the basis that you are
still going to honour it and you don't honour
it, then it doesn't portray us in good light.
"This is where the Federal Government ought
to call those who were party to this
agreement," the Senate President said.
To him, "ASUU simply took advantage of the
ignorance of those who were sent and simply
just allowed this agreement to go on because it
is obvious that this is going to be very difficult
piece of paper to implement".
Mark added: "They found that those who were
sent there simply didn't know their right from
their left and they just went ahead.
"I think that also is not fair because ASUU is
an organisation in Nigeria and we are not going
to go to another country to implement this
piece of paper.
"It was obvious to me as soon as Chukwumerije
concluded that this was a difficult thing for
them to implement.
"I think in all seriousness we will make this
passionate appeal to all the parties involved."
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