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.
Via: Punch
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