ASUU Strike: Lecturers And Students To Resume In One Week -Minister

Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu
Adamu
The Minister of Education, Malam
Adamu Adamu, on Thursday , said the
ongoing strike by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities may be called off
within one week.
The minister stated this at a meeting of
the Senate Committee on Tertiary
Institutions and TETFund in Abuja.
He said that the ministry and other
major stakeholders were already
holding meetings with the union to
resolve some of the issues that led to
the strike .
He assured that with the level of
progress made in the negotiation ,
there was hope that students and
lecturers would return to classes
within one week.
“ The issue of renegotiation is already
going on . I have already written a
letter formalising the meeting I had
with the union because I went alone to
face them and I wrote a letter which I
gave them yesterday .
“ From the way they received it, I think
it is possible that the strike will be
called off within a week, maximum , ’’
he said .
Adamu said while explaining reasons
for the strike , ASUU accused the
Federal Government of failing to keep
its side of the agreement .
He assured that the Ministry of
Finance had agreed to do the needful
with regard to releasing funds as soon
as possible.
“ The union had asked for N23 bn to be
paid.
“ We said the condition for that N 23 bn
to be released was for them to account
for the N 30 bn they had taken which is
a total of N53 bn and they were not
able to account for it.
“ The Minister of Finance then
undertook to do the audit from the
ministry and we agreed that the result
will be known within six months.
“ The Federal Government undertook to
be paying them N 1 .5 bn each month
during the time they are waiting for
the outcome of the audit.
“ Their grouse now is that the forensic
audit promised by the minister of
finance has not been done and the
money promised has not been paid .
“ So, at our meeting two days ago, we
agreed that we will pay them and do a
forensic audit on the entire N 53 bn .
“ I wrote to the minister and she has
already approved it and this money
will be paid ; probably on Monday,
they will be able to receive the
cheque ,’’ he said .
Adamu, however, stated that his
ministry did not agree on some issues
during the meeting with the union.
He said , “ There are other issues which
we did not agree on and that is their
request to be taken out of Treasury
Single Account.
“ I told them that it is not possible
because this is a new policy and
government is not going to change it
for anyone.
“ Concerning their salary shortfall , we
said a lot of the reasons spring from
what they are doing wrong.
“ They do a lot of employment without
proper authority .
“ For instance , a university can decide
to recruit 50 people and IPPIS is not
aware. So , we insisted that institutions
must stop doing that and they
accepted .
“ There is also the issue of the
registration of their pension
commission . I think they have one or
two issues to iron out with PENCOM
and I believe they will also be able to
solve the problem within a week.’’
The Chairman of the Senate
committee , Sen . Barau Jibrin, said the
committee was impressed with the
briefing by the minister on the matter .
He explained that the seriousness of
the issue made the committee
members cut short their recess , and
said that from the assurance given by
the minister , students and lecturers
would return to school shortly.
Jibrin said , “ We hope the proposal
sent to ASUU by the minister will be
accepted .
“ On our part, with regard to getting
some of the issues captured in the
budget , we will do our best to actualize
it.”
(NAN )