ASUU STRIKE LATEST

The Federal Government yesterday claimed
it had met almost all the demands of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities after releasing an additional N30 billion to the union.
Gabriel Suswam, Chairman of the National Economic Empowerment
Development Strategy (NEEDS) assessment implementation
committee for universities, said that the Ministry of Educationwould
disburse the fund to the various universities for the payment of
lecturers' allowances.
While appealing to ASUU to shelve its industrial action, Mr. Suswam
frowned at the union's claims that the earlier disbursement of N100
billion by the government for
infrastructuresin the universities was done without consultations.
Meanwhile the ASUU leadership Last week, expressed concernsthat a
clear procedure for assessing the funds by the universities is yet to
be defined.
Nasir Fagge, ASUU President, had insisted that only the provision of
N500 billion would meet the immediate needs of the universities.
"We observe that the Committee is so far mentioning only N100 billion.
If the implementation is to be related to the funding requirements in
the 2009 ASUU/
FGN Agreement and the January 2012 MoU, what is due for 2012 and 2013
is N500 billion, not N100 billion," Mr. Fagge had said.
But Mr. Suswam said ASUU was carried carried along in the entire
process where N100 billion was agreed.
Mr. Suswam said that governing councils, and not his committee, would
be responsible for awarding contracts in the
universities, adding that the lecturers' strike has assumed a
political dimension.