meeting between President Goodluck
Jonathan and the leadership of Academic Staff
Union of Universities have begun to emerge.
The PUNCH gathered on Tuesday evening that
a key component of the agreement reached by
the parties was that the Federal Government
would inject N1.1tn into public universities
in the next five years.
A reliable source, who made this known, also
hinted that the strike would be called off
anytime next week.
He said the government team which was led
by President Goodluck Jonathan would
release N220bn yearly into the sector
beginning from 2014.
The source added, "The meeting should be the
longest that we have ever had on this crisis
but I can tell you that both parties were frank
all through the discussions.
" The parties also showed commitment
towards ending the crisis. The President in
particular showed that he was serious about
ending the strike and that was why he offered
to release over N1tn to the universities in the
next five years.
"The money will be released on a yearly basis
at N220bn per annum beginning from 2014.
For the outgoing year, the government will
only release N100bn and this has been
processed."
He said that the government, in order to show
its commitment to a fresh pact, accepted that
"the fund(N1.1tn) should domiciled at the
Central Bank of Nigeria"
"The money will be released on a quarterly
basis to the universities. So, there won't be
any problem about funding the deal," the
source said.
The National Universities Commission and
the Trade Union Congress, according to him,
will be the joint guarantors of the
agreement while the Minister of Education
will be the implementation officer.
The source also said that the government
agreed among other things, to revamp the
public universities by ensuring that all those
issues that always led to strike were dealt with
once and for all.
It was learnt that the negotiating team of
ASUU led by Dr. Nassir Faggae met on
Tuesday night to further deliberate on the
deal.
Though the details of the meeting were not
known as of 11.22pm on Tuesday, it was
gathered that ASUU might call a National
Executive Council meeting on or before
Saturday where the deal would be tabled
before all its branch executives.
Jonathan had while shaking hands with
Fagge after the marathon meeting in the
Presidential Villa, Abuja said, "My President,
I hope it (strike) will end today(Tuesday). Our
children have suffered enough. We must find
a solution."
All those in attendance responded with a loud
"Amen."
When greeting Omar, he said, "My President
with you around, there will be no problem;
our agreement is signed, sealed and
delivered.".
Faggae told State House correspondent on his
way out of the Villa, that his team would
take back a message to varsity teachers
before a decision would be taken on the
next line of action.
"We had a lengthy meeting with Mr. President,
and we looked into how best to address the
problem of university education in this
country. We now have a message from Mr.
President that we are going to take to our
members and we are expecting that our
members will respond appropriately to his
message," he said.
Fagge added that since the message was
meant for members, he would not divulge it
to the press.
When asked whether university teachers
would be called upon to return to the
classrooms, he said that the decision was left
for them to take.
When further asked if he was impressed by
the President's message, Faggae cautioned
journalists against putting words in his
mouth, insisting that only ASUU members
would determine that.
The Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka Wogu,
who listened to Faggae's encounter with
journalists, later said progress was made
during the discussion.
He said, "We made progress. The President of
ASUU told you that they are going back with a
message from the Federal Government back to
their members and the message is full of high
expectation and hope."
When asked whether ASUU would call off the
strike, Wogu said that was why he described
the message as full of expectation.
"Our prayer is that they will come back with
positive outcome. They might even not come
back to meet us. They might take decision
there that will meet your expectations " he
said.
He added that the offers made by the
government during the meeting were those
that were in line with the contentious 2009
agreement.
He said since the issues that led to the strike
bordered on the 2009 agreement, the
government did not go beyond the pact.
The President was joined at the meeting that
started at 2.40pm on Monday by Vice-
President Namadi Sambo; Minister of Finance,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius
Anyim; the Supervising Minister of Education,
Nyesom Wike; Wogu among others.
Faggae led the union team which included
past presidents such as Prof. Abdulahi Sule-
Kano, Prof. Dipo Fashina and Prof. Festus
Iyayi.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress,
Abdulawahid Omar and his Trade Union
Congress counterpart, Bobboi Kaigama, also
attended.
Other members of the delegation were Prof.
Biodun Ogunyemi, Prof. Victor Osodeke,
Prof. Suleiman Abdul, Dr. Victor Igbum and
Mr. Michael Odunmoraye.
The marathon meeting was the first
between ASUU and Jonathan since the
strike started. The Presidency took over the
negotiations with ASUU on September 19
with Sambo in charge.
Source: punchng
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