The federal government has on Tuesday promised to the whopping N200 billion for revitalisation of federal universities and earned allowances for Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, members next year.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, stated this in Abuja yesterday during a meeting with pro-chancellors and vice chancellors of federal universities on decisions reached by the government to end the ongoing ASUU strike.
Adamu explained that a sum of N150 billion shall be provided for in the 2023 budget as funds for the revitalisation of federal universities, to be disbursed to the institutions in the first quarter of the year, while the sum of N50 billion shall also be provided for in the 2023 budget for the payment of outstanding areas of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the first quarter of the year.
While noting that the prevailing economic situation is limiting the ability of the government to accede to all their demands, Adamu said the appeal to the unions to consider and accept the government’s offer and call off the ongoing industrial actions in the interest of the nation’s educational system consequently saw the suspension of the strike by Joint Action Committee of NASU/SSANU and NAAT.
He said the government and the ASUU had no option but to continue talking “Until our universities have reopened their doors to students who, clearly, are the principal victims of the seemingly unending strikes. In the circumstances, therefore, all councils and senates of our universities are enjoined to rise up to their responsibilities.
“We must, together, continue to work to restore our public universities to where they were in the 60s and 70s. As the most important officers in our university system, pro-chancellors and vice-chancellors, must demonstrate more commitment to ending the ongoing strike,” he added.
He said the government negotiation team, in all its activities, had been guided by Buhari’s directives, namely, “That while the unions should be persuaded to return to work, the government should not repeat the past mistakes of accepting to sign an agreement it will be unable to implement. Government should not, in the guise of resolving current challenges, sow seeds for future disruptions.”
Adamu said to him, “The past two weeks have been a very dark period of personal anguish and internal turmoil. I used to deceive myself that in a climate of frankness, and with mutual goodwill, it will fall to my lot to bring an end to the incessant strikes in the education sector. This has not proved possible- or, at least, not as easy, quick and straightforward, as I used to think.”
The federal government yesterday said it could only afford a 23.5 per cent salary increase for all categories of the workforce in federal universities, except for the professorial cadre, which will enjoy a 35 per cent upward review.
Adamu said after a series of meetings with Buhari and the ministers of finance, budget and national planning; labour and productivity; communications and digital economy; and education as well as the director-general of the Budget Office and the chairman of the Salaries and Wages Commission, the Draft Agreement by Nimi Briggs Re-negotiation Team was critically reviewed and the proposed salary increment considered unrealistic and out of tune with the current realities of the national economy.
He also assured that henceforth, allowances pertaining to ad-hoc duties of academic and non-academic staff shall be paid as and when due by the governing councils of universities to which such services are rendered and to the staff who perform them.
Academic activities have been suspended by ASUU for over 200 days over the alleged failure of the federal government to meet all its demands, which include the conclusion of the process of renegotiating the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), payment of outstanding arrears of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), release of the agreed sum of money for the revitalisation of public universities (federal and states), address proliferation and governance issues in the state universities, settle promotion arrears, release withheld salaries of academics, and pay outstanding third-party deductions.
