FG offers ASUU N220bn over 5 years

By The Rainbow

•Union insists on N350bn in 2014, N400bn over four

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has begun consultations with its members on whether or not to accept the

The Federal Government has made a new offer of a yearly payment of N220 billion to university lecturers in the renewed bid to reopen universities that have been closed since July 1.

This a key highlight of 13-hour marathon meeting between the Federal Government team led by President Goodluck Jonathan and the university lecturers.

The government made the offer as a pragmatic means implementing the 2009 Agreement aimed at ending the four-month strike by the university teachers.

Reports indicate however that the lecturers through the ASUU leaders insisted on getting paid N350 billion in 2014 and N400 billion annually over the next four years.

It was further learnt that the president and his team pleaded passionately with the lecturers to be reasonable in its demands so that the universities could be reopened.

The ASUU leaders who appeared happy after the meeting promised to take the President's message to their members.

The lecturers demand is meant to universities' infrastructure needs and lecturers' earned allowances as stipulated under the 2009 Agreement.

None of the parties to the negotiations, which began on Monday at 2.40 pm and ended at about 3.30 am on Monday  was willing to give insight into the real decisions taken in the meeting.

It was gathered that the concrete annual lump sum of N220 billion offered by government, raised hopes of an imminent end to the protracted labour dispute.

Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) were upbeat that students who had been kept home by the strike would soon return to schools. Briefing State House reporters yesterday morning after the marathon meeting,

ASUU President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, told state house correspondent  on Monday morning that the union leaders would take the message from Jonathan to their members.

He however declined to say what had transpired at the meeting and whether a truce was reached or not. He said, 'Well we had a lengthy meeting with Mr. President, rubbing minds on how best to address the problem of university education in this country. And we now have a message from Mr. President which we are going to take to our members. And we are expecting that our members will respond appropriately to the message of Mr. President.'

'I can't tell you (reporters). It is not for you. It is for our members, ' he added. On whether he was satisfied with the president's offer, he said,  'Don't put words into my mouth. Our members will determine that.'

He would not also say whether the union was ready to call off the strike to allow the resumption of academic activities in universities based on the outcome of the meeting.

Wogu, also in his interaction with reporters, expressed optimism that the outcome of the negotiations with ASUU would lead to the suspension of the strike. He said: 'We made progress. The president of ASUU told you (reporters) that they are going back with a message from the federal government to their members. And the message is full of high expectations and hope.'

On whether the message was good enough to make ASUU call off the strike, he said: 'That is why the message is full of high expectations and hope. So our prayer is that they come back with a positive outcome. 'They might not even come back to meet us, they might take decisions there that will meet your expectations. 'Nigerians should be patient for ASUU to finish their meetings and come out with a message to Nigerians.' On whether the government made any fresh offer to the union, Wogu said: 'Well, the offers we made are the offers they are talking about in line with the 2009 agreement. The issues that led to the strike are issues contained in the 2009 Agreement and we did not go beyond the agreement.'

He added,  'We believe the presidential intervention has resolved the logjam. The ball is now in the court of the union leaders to meet with their members to convey the outcome of the meeting to their members. 'We are very optimistic that this will bring about a positive outcome. Even the ASUU team was very happy with the deliberations,' he added.

The minister however was not categorical on whether the federal government had accepted to implement the terms of the 2009 Agreement to the letter. The NLC, which was part of the negotiations, also welcomed the offer made by the federal government to ASUU.

NLC acting General Secretary, Chris Uyot, who declined to give any details on what was discussed, described the proposal as 'acceptable'.