The Academic Staff of University, ASUU through their chairman Prof. Victor Emmanuel Osodeke has threatened to strike if the Government does not meet their demands within 21 days.
Why does it matter?
ASUU president made this statement while speaking at the University of Abuja. He said that the Federal Government is to blame for failing to uphold its end of the agreement, which made the association call off the strike action in December 2020.
The Big Picture.
The Minister of state for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba threw the first shot at the union when he claimed ASUU refused to present a document showing the breakdown of the N22.1bn entitled to the staffs.
Prof Osodeke said, “The N30bn revitalisation fund for public universities purported to be kept in a dedicated account at the Central Bank of Nigeria has yet to be disbursed even when a majority of the vice-chancellors have successfully defended their proposals as a condition of accessing the fund. “The government gave the assurance that the fund would be paid by the end of October. Surprisingly, this is November 15 and nothing has been heard from the government about it.
“At the meeting with the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, the ES said the N22.17bn earned allowances had been appropriated in the 2021 budget based on the weighted average of the annual salary appropriated for each university.
“It was then agreed that the Ministry of Education would take one week, while the Ministry of Finance would take till the end of October to effect payment, but surprisingly till now, nothing has been done to implement this.”