ASUU accuses FG of reneging on release of N200billion

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has accused the Federal Govt of failing to honor one of the agreements it entered with FG before last year's six-month-old strike was called off.
 
FG had promised the release of N20billion at the beginning of every quarter for infrastructural development of all Universities during its negotiations with ASUU.
In a media parley with newsmen at the University of Ibadan yesterday, the National Treasurer of ASUU, Dr. Ademola Aremu lamented the failure of Government to honour agreements with ASUU..

    "All the strike ASUU had embarked upon in this country were basically because the Federal Government failed to honour agreements freely entered with us. It is also sad that each time before we begin the strike, we would give the government enough warnings and grace to make them retrace their steps. But they always fail. We don’t know why the government is always unwilling to implement the documents signed by their representatives. However, we will continue to fight for the system because if the system collapses, we will collapse with it.

The Federal Government yesterday disbursed N200 billion to Vice Chancellors of public universities.

This is in line with the agreement between government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to begin the implementation of National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) identified within the sector.

It would be recalled that the union had last week accused the FG of delaying the disbursement of funds both parties earlier agreed on.

Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, at a meeting with the Committee of Vice Chancellors at the National Universities Commission (NUC), Abuja tasked the universities on judicious use of the funds.

He said, “All the tertiary institutions would give account of funds allocated to them, to let the public know what the government is doing to improve the education sector”.

“It is imperative that the public know how much government is investing in the country’s tertiary education and correct the impression that it is neglecting the sector,” the minister said.

The accountability system, which is expected to be conducted in the six geo-political zones of the country, would begin as from March 4. It would kick off with the North Central zone at the Federal College of Agriculture, Makurdi. Source: DailyPost