The Federal Government, according to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has yet to address the majority of the problems that led to the union’s most recent strike.
After several talks with the Federal Government, ASUU ended an eight-month strike in the latter part of last year.
The release of university revitalization money, revision of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university professors, and implementation of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution are all demands made by the lecturers (UTAS).
However, the union claimed that months after the event, the government had yet to respond to the majority of its demands, including the payment of salary backlogs. As far as the current administration is concerned, the situation is handled as soon as the strike is over, even if they are unaware that a strike is a sign of a larger crisis.
They no longer care about the issue. No meetings have been scheduled since we ended the strike in response to a court order. He claims that despite the government’s stance, the union members are struggling to adhere to the academic schedule.
The newly authorized N320.3 billion 2023 injection for public tertiary institutions was another topic brought up by the ASUU leader.
He thanked the administration for releasing the money and requested that it be redistributed so that 90% of it goes to academic institutions.
Osodeke stated, “That (the N320 billion fund) is a positive development; this is part of what we struggled for in 1994; it is our effort, but there are difficulties we need to work out.
When you check the allocation of about N1.2 billion to universities and others, you find out that the total for all the universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education comes to just about N186 billion allocated out of about N320, leaving a balance of N132 billion that has not been accounted for. What are we using that N132 billion which is 41% of the total amount of money? Is it for bureaucracy or what?
“This is what has been happening in TETFund and I think there is a need to examine what exactly is happening at TETFund. The idea of this TETFund when it was negotiated by ASUU was that this money will come and be distributed to the universities, not keeping 41% for whatever purpose.
“I think we need a redistribution of this fund to ensure that it accounts for 90% of what has been approved to go to universities, polytechnic and not kept as bureaucracy or whatever. You need to tell the public what TETFund is doing with the balance of N132 billion,” the ASUU chairman said.
Oreoluwa is an accountant and a brand writer with a flair for journalism.
