ASUU ends NEC meeting, keeps mum on outcome till meeting with Jonathan

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) rose from a two-day National Executive Council Meeting (NEC) on Saturday in Kano with a resolve to keep mum until it met with President Goodluck Jonathan.

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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was held at an undisclosed venue, away from the ASUU secretariat.

However, a reliable source in the association who spoke with NAN on Saturday, in Kano, said: ‘’ASUU has decided to meet with President Jonathan before making whatever decision they took during the meeting public.’’

The source added that 60 per cent of the members wanted the strike called off while the remaining 40 per cent wanted it to continue.

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The NEC deliberated on the report from each university on whether or not they should accept the federal government’s offer.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that many universities including the Lagos State University and the University of Lagos had agreed to call off the strike.

ASUU had on November 19 indefinitely suspended the NEC meeting following the death of its former President, Prof. Festus Iyayi, in a road accident on the Lokoja-Abuja highway.

The former ASUU President died on his way to the NEC meeting.

Mr. Iyayi was involved in a ghastly auto accident allegedly caused by the convoy of the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada.

Several members of the executive council from various universities across Nigeria were already in Kano for the meeting at the time.

ASUU has been on strike since July 1 and the NEC meeting was to deliberate on the resolutions of various chapters of ASUU on whether the strike should be suspended or not.

The contentious 2009 Agreement

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ASUU has been on strike over the non implementation of the 2009 agreement it reached with the Federal Government.

The agreement included details such as the breakdown of lecturers’ salary structure, staff loans, pension, overtime, and moderation of examinations.

Part of the agreement dwelt on funding of universities where both parties agreed that each federal university should get at least N1.5 trillion between 2009 and 2011 while state universities, within the same period, should receive N3.6 million per student.

The agreement also had parts that asked the re-negotiation committee to ensure that at least 26 percent of Nigeria’s annual budget was allocated to education, and half of that allocation to universities.

The agreement also asked that the 2004 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Act, and the National University Commission Act 2004, be amended.

Text of the suggested amendment bills – including suggestion for amendment of the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act 2004 – were provided in the agreements.

The agreement was signed by Bolanle Babalakin, the then chairman of Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities; Gamaliel Onosode, chairman of the re-negotiation committee; and Ukachukwu Awuzei, the then president of ASUU.

The agreement demanded a heavy financial commitment from the government and was an adaptation of an earlier agreement reached in 2001.

It is unclear how much of the agreement have been implemented by the government. However, the secretary to the federation, Pius Anyim, after one of the recent failed negotiations, said most of the issues contained in the 2009 agreement had been fully resolved except for the earned allowances estimated at N92 billion.

“Some of the issues which bothered on amendment of pensionable retirement age of academics in the professorial cadre, consolidated peculiar allowances (CONPUAA)- exclusively for university teaching staff, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), setting up of budget monitoring committee in all public universities have been fully implemented,” he disclosed.