ASUU Bemoans Non-release of Needs Assessment Intervention Fund Since 2014
Uchechukwu Nnaike
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has decried the federal government’s nonimplementation of the ASUU/FGN Memorandum of Understanding of November 2013 which stated that Nigerian universities required 1.3 trillion for their revitalisation to compete favourably with their counterparts around the world.
Briefing journalist at the University of Lagos yesterday, the Lagos Zone of the union said the amount was based on the outcome of the federal government-conducted Needs Assessment of Public Universities in July 2012.
The union stated that in the December 11, 2013 MoU, government agreed to release the intervention funds in six installments over a period of six years starting with N200 billion in 2013 and subsequent payment of N220 billion each in the remaining five years spanning 2014-2018, but regretted that government is in arrears of N605 billion as at the third quarter of 2016.
According to the Coordinator of the ASUU Lagos Zone, Prof. Olusiji Sowande, “the implication is that government is not committed to the full implementation of this component of our agreement. The funding crisis is seriously impacting negatively on the state of infrastructure and research facilities in our universities.
“This lack of commitment to improving the education sector of our country is further expressed in the decline in the budgetary allocation to education from 11 per cent in 2015 to eight per cent in 2016 as opposed to the 26 per cent benchmark set by UNESCO. This is unacceptable to our union and must be addressed to halt the deterioration of facilities in Nigerian universities.”
The union also expressed concern over the non-implementation of and violations of the 2009 ASUU/ FGN Agreement and subsequent MoUs arising from it; funding of state universities and breaches of the condition of service and renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.
“The federal government freely entered into an agreement with our union in 2009 over funding of the universities, universities autonomy, and conditions of service and other miscellaneous issues confronting the Nigerian university system.
“In an effort to cause the FGN to fully implement the agreement, the union embarked on strike in 2012 and 2013, which led to the signing of MoU towards the effective implementation of the agreement. To date, several aspects of the agreement are yet to be implemented.”
It said some of the unimplemented aspects include Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO); funding of state universities; earned academic allowances; renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, which ought to be done every three years.
While expressing disappointment that the federal and state governments are not responding to its consistent appeals for reason to bring about genuine transformation, ASUU stressed that embarking on strike has never being a favoured choice, given that its members feel and suffer the most during and after every strike.
To forestall any avoidable crisis, it appealed to “all genuinely progressive individuals and groups to prevail on the government to arrest a brewing and potentially combustible situation in the Nigerian university system before it degenerates into a serious conflagration.”