We Have Met All ASUU Demands,Including N200b Agreement...FG,NUC

THE Federal Government has stressed that it has met the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), adding that there was no need to maintain the strike.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students’ Matters, Jude Imagwe, disclosed this in Abuja, on Tuesday, adding that agreement was reached  sequel to the last meeting held between Federal Government and ASUU.

This came as the Federal Government, on Tuesday, shifted the resumption ultimatum it earlier gave the union till December 9, in honour of the late former president of the union, Professor Festus Iyayi, whose burial rites begin tomorrow.

Speaking during an interactive session with leaders of the National Association of the Nigerian Students (NANS),    Imagwe said  a larger membership of ASUU campus chapters had voted for the immediate call-off of the strike.

According to him, the administration believed that with the agreement and the result of the votes across the branches, the union had no reason for further sustenance of the strike, while he asked members to comply and resume work without further delay.

He explained that the directive given by the government was not targeted to threaten the ASUU leadership, but to show the commitment towards ensuring that all university students returned to school.

The presidential aide urged union leaders to comply with the directives, by ensuring that all students returned to the campus, assuring that the government would ensure a water-tight security on the campuses.

“The Nigerian public should be informed that the government has met all the promises they made on this ASUU issue. If they have not agreed, there was no reason for them to have said they would meet their members and get back. It means there was an agreement that was reached.

“The announcement by the Minister of Education that lecturers should resume was not in anyway targeted at threatening or compelling the leadership of ASUU to go back to school,” he stated

In his remarks, NANS president, Yinka Gbadebo, maintained that the student body was neutral, adding that “it will always support a just cause.”
He said the body was on the side of the government, because it was working in line with its desire for all schools to be reopened.

The Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, while announcing the shift in the deadline date in a briefing in Abuja, on Tuesday, said the government decided to shift the deadline after it received the notification of Iyayi’s funeral rites late on Monday.

Okojie further noted that the decision was also to forestall a situation where government and ASUU would have to deal with matters arising from the ultimatum during the funeral rites of the former ASUU president.

He said the latest directive had been communicated to the various university governing councils and vice chancellors for onward transmission to the academic staff.

He, however, said there was no intention to victimise any lecturer for participating in the strike.

He said the victimisation clause, which members of ASUU are using to discredit the government, never came up when the unionists met with President Jonathan on November 4.

According to Okojie, “any lecturer who resumes on December 9 would have his or her salary arrears paid in full.”

Okojie said government, as employer of labour, could not just fold its arms while the institutions remained shut and the students continued to suffer.
“You cannot pay someone who has failed to resume work. You are on strike and you want to be paid. What if some have already left the system? Some of our very bright lectures may have got jobs elsewhere already,” he said.

Okojie clarified that the resumption order did not necessarily mean lectures would commence immediately, adding that the school environment had to be put back in shape, as reptiles might have taken over some places.

“We just received information that the burial rites of Festus Iyayi begins on December 5 and would last till December 7. So, based on this information, government decided to shift the resumption deadline to December 9, to enable lecturers to participate in the burial,” he said.

On the N200 billion revitalisation fund which ASUU was demanding should be disbursed within two weeks, Okojie clarified that the money had been deposited in an account in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The money, he said, could not, however, be disbursed anyhow, because they were meant for capital projects.