Strike: FG releases N42.68bn to universities, Airways pensioners

To placate members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who have issued an ultimatum on another round of strike action, the Federal Government on Monday released N20 billion to public universities across the country for the revitalisation scheme.

Also 15 years after liquidation of Nigeria Airways, a little relief came the way of its former staff and their beneficiaries as Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, announced the release of N22.68 billion to settle half of their final entitlements.

At a press briefing at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Ahmed initial submission regarding retirement benefits of ex-workers of Nigeria Airways was N78 billion.

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“This amount was verified by Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) and other relevant stakeholders in line with the condition of service of Nigeria Airways Limited in Liquidation and other extant rules and regulations.

“At the end of which the sum of N45 billion was agreed as the total retirement benefits of the affected staff.”

She lamented that as a result of the 15 years delay in payment, many ex-workers have been thrown out of their houses, their children have been unable to attend school, and others have lost their businesses, fallen ill or indeed, passed on.

“This unfortunate situation cannot be allowed to continue under a responsible administration.”

She immediately constituted a committee to physically verify the claims of the pensioners and relevant next-of-kin before the release of funds to the approved beneficiaries.

The minister told representatives of the staff union that the remaining half would be defrayed in the next six months.

On revitalisation of public universities, the minister recalled that in 2013, ASUU signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) but that implementation of the bilateral agreement has had certain challenges due to revenue shortages and other reasons.

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She explained that the N20 billion would be released to the beneficiary universities in line with the established criteria used by Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC).

ASUU Vice President, Emmanuel Osodeke, while responding, wondered why government was releasing the N20 billion, which was to have been a palliative since September 2017.

According to him, “what we expect to be discussing now is how to properly fund public universities sustainably without recourse to national budgets.”