FG SAYS 80 PERCENT OF ASUU DEMANDS HAVE BEEN MET

The federal government recently appealed to primary and secondary school teachers not to embark on strike
in solidarity with striking university lecturers.
The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, disclosed that 80 per cent of the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU)'s demands had been met by Federal
Government. Mr. Wike, who stated these in a meeting
with the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in Abuja, said the yet-to-be resolved issues were...
 those of earned allowances.
He said that the other unresolved issue
was the N400 billion annual capital
expenditure to universities demanded
by ASUU.
"The N400 billion they are demanding is
not part of federal budget or Tertiary
Education Trust Fund (TETFund)
intervention.
"And out of the N92 billion earned
allowances demanded by ASUU,
government has offered N30 billion to
them for a start,'' he said.
According to the minister, ASUU is
considering the offer and had asked to
be given until Thursday to enable it meet
with its branches for a resolution.
"So, the purpose of this meeting is to
tell you (NUT) how far we have gone
because of the reports and the letter we
got from the union that you are going
on a solidarity strike with ASUU,'' he
said.
Mr. Wike also apologised to the NUT for
his comments on Monday that the
union had no business going on a
solidarity strike with ASUU strike,
saying he spoke "unofficially''.
Also speaking at the meeting, the
Minister of Labour, Emeka Wogu,
appealed to the NUT not to go on the
proposed strike as it would only
complicate issues.
Mr. Wogu said that NUT might not have
been briefed appropriately on
government's efforts to resolve the
crisis with ASUU and so appealed to the
union to embark on the planned
sympathy strike.
"One thing that is clear is that the
Federal Government has started the
implementation of the 2009 agreement.
The matter can still be resolved,'' he
said.
In his response, the National President
of NUT, Michael Olukoya, said teachers,
under the umbrella of NUT were
concerned with the lingering ASUU
strike that was threatening the collapse
of the education sector.
Mr. Olukoya said that all stakeholders
should come together and explore ways
of ending the crisis.
He advised both ASUU and the Federal
Government to "put Nigeria first'' in
their negotiations and shun the idea of
"buck passing''.
The NUT boss also called for the review
of the conditions for accessing the
intervention fund as the stringent
conditions was preventing the
institutions from benefiting from the
fund.
He said that NUT was not threatening
to go on the solidarity strike in the
interest of ASUU, but in the overall
interest of Nigerians.