2009 agreement: N1.2 trillion ASUU demand liquidated ― Adamu

The federal government said that the N1.2 trillion revitalisation fund being demanded by the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) should no longer be an issue as the government has successfully liquidated this by investing over N2.5 trillion in tertiary education alone in the last ten years.

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu spoke, on Thursday, while anchoring the state house briefing on the reforms being made in the education sector in Nigeria.

He explained that the N2.5 trillion was in form of intervention to tertiary institutions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), in the last ten years, saying this has exceeded the sum of N1.2 trillion ASUU is demanding.

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• 2009 agreement: N1.2 trillion ASUU demand liquidated ― Adamu
• 2009 agreement: N1.2 trillion ASUU demand liquidated ― Adamu

He further disclosed that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has expended over N6 trillion in capital and recurrent expenditure in the education sector in the last seven years.

ASUU had on February 14, 2022, embarked on a 4-week total and comprehensive strike to press home their unresolved demands on the federal government.

This was further extended by another 12 weeks on May 9 to give the government enough time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues after an extension on March 14 due to an alleged lack of seriousness on the part of the federal government.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on July 19 directed the minister of education, Adamu, to proffer a solution to the challenge and report back to him in 2 weeks.

However, ASUU remained adamant in its resolve to press on with its demand as it once again on August 1 extended its ongoing strike by another 4 weeks to give the Federal Government more time to resolve outstanding issues in its dispute with it.

Other ASUU demands include, the signing of the 2009 FGN/ASUU renegotiated Agreement, deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform, payment of outstanding arrears of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), release agreed sum of money for the revitalization of public universities (Federal and States), among others.

He also revealed that the government has not accepted UTAS as a payment platform for Universities as reported in the media.

The minister, however, said strikes are a huge distraction, doing no one any good, saying the thinking that only strikes can achieve results is a wrong perception.

“The Buhari administration has invested in infrastructural development of the education sector more than any other administration in the history of this nation. It is on record that the tertiary education trust fund has invested an estimated N2.5 Trillion in tertiary education in the last ten years, thereby, exceeding the sum total of N1.2 trillion contained in the 2009 agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities and we are still counting.

He said one of the greatest achievements it recorded in the education sector during the period under review, was the development and launching of the e-learning website for all levels of our educational system while directing all regulatory agencies in the sector to ensure that all educational Institutions under their supervision interface with the ICT Department of the ministry develop and deploy relevant content on the website.

He further said the ministry has invested heavily in the construction, renovation and rehabilitation of classrooms, hostels, laboratories, security and other infrastructural facilities at the basic and secondary levels.

“In the last seven years, a total of Five Hundred and Fifty-Three Billion, One Hundred and Thirty-Four Million, Nine Hundred and Sixty-Seven Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety-Eight Naira, Fifty Kobo (N553,134,967.498.50) has gone into infrastructural development at the basic and secondary levels.”