The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has refuted the claim by the Federal Government that it had released N20 billion to the universities for ASUU course, insisting that the manner in which the announcement was made was intended to paint the union black.
The Coordinator, ASUU Lagos zone, Prof Olusiji Sowande, stated this at a press conference held at the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Akoka, on Tuesday.
He explained that in the Memorandum of Action (MoA) of 2017, government promised that N20 billion would be released by the Minister of Finance, made up of N10 billion in September 2017 as a sign of its commitment to the revitalization of public universities across the country and that as at the time of signing the memorandum, the revitalisation fund owned by the government was already N220 billion.
“But just yesterday (Monday),” Prof Olusiji Sowande, from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, said; “It was reported in the media that N20 billion had been released to ASUU. But I will make it clear now that government has never at a time released any money to ASUU but to the universities and we are yet to see the evidence of the release of any money. That is why the manner in which the announcement was made was intended to blackmail ASUU.
“Government usually releases money to the benefiting universities and not to ASUU. So, the purported release of N20 billion is coming after one year as against one month agreed in the MoA of 2017. And the said release was even on the pages of newspapers. Our expectation is that by now, the government should have offset more than N220 billion to the Nigerian public universities as contained in the 2013 MoU for the upgrade of facilities and infrastructural development,” he noted.
While reacting to renegotiation of the 2009 agreement between FG and ASUU, he said there was no need of giving the government an ultimatum before embarking on another strike.
He, however, recalled that the union gave Federal Government October 2017 deadline to fulfil its promises as contained in the 2017 MoA and that the union embarked on a nationwide total, comprehensive and indefinite strike on August 14 last year.
“So, it is unheard of that after one year that the union had patiently waited on the government to fulfil its promises upon which the union conditionally suspended its strike in September 2017, it now appears that our patient was misplaced.
“We are therefore called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on government to sincerely fulfil its promises and avoid another round of crisis in the Nigerian university system.
“Our union should not be held responsible for any avoidable disruption of academic and other activities in the Nigerian public universities if the government fails to honour its words,” he said.