The hope of many university students across the
country to resume academic activities soon may have been dashed.
The striking Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) has rejected the offers made to it early this week by the
Nigerian government.
At the seventh meeting with the leadership of
ASUU on Tuesday, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said the
labour dispute with the university teachers was on the verge of being resolved.
He listed the fresh concessions made by the administration to ASUU.
According to Mr Ngige, the office of the
Accountant-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Finance presented
evidence that N15.4 billion had been released to public universities.
On earned academic allowances, he said
President Muhammadu Buhari approved N20 billion to offset arrears of the 2009
to 2012 verified earnings by university teachers.
But in an exclusive interview with Premium
Times early Saturday morning, the President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, said upon
reviewing the offers made by the government, members of the union across
various campuses and zones rejected it.
Mr. Ogunyemi, who described government’s offer
on the outstanding revitalization fund of N1.1 trillion as tokenism, said
members are insisting that government should release at least a tranche of N220
billion spread over four quarters of 2019.
He added that on earned allowances,
government’s proposal should not be lesser than the total amount released “the
last time” out of the verified balance.
No comments:
Post a Comment