ASUU WILL SOON END THE STRIKE
      
   
Secretary to the Federal Government, Anyim Pius
Anyim, has stated that contrary to the claims by the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the
Federal Government has demonstrated
commitment to the implementation of the 2009 FG/
ASUU agreement. In a statement signed by his Special Assistant on
Media, Sam Nwaobasi, he said the Federal
Government was fully committed to ending the
ongoing strike and bringing students back to
school. He however, stated that many of the issues
in the 2009 agreement, which ASUU had with the Federal Government and which it claimed were still
unresolved, had been resolved. Among the contentious issues, according to the
statement, were the rent approved by the
governent and the consolidated salary structure for
non teaching staff. These, he said had been fully implemented as all
teaching and non-teaching staff had been on the
consolidated salary structure since 2009. Another
issue was the amendment of the pensionable
retirement age of academics in the professional
cadre, as professors now retire at 65 instead of 60 years. He stated: “Besides the issue of retirement age and
consolidated salary structure, the government has
always assisted state universities through the
federal intervention agencies, and the present
special revitalization programme covers both state
and federal universities. “On the issue of the transfer of landed property to
universities, the government has made it clear that
it cannot transfer landed property to ASUU because
it has no structure to manage or maintain such
property. Government is however, willing to
support any university that sets up a property company with management structure to compete
with others in the industry. “There was also the consensus that revitalizing the
tertiary institutions is of critical importance to the
nation. ASUU, therefore agreed with the
government to jointly undertake a NEEDS
assessment of the universities with a view to
harnessing all the funding that hitherto goes into the system in a haphazard manner. The NEEDS
Committee that was set up has completed its work
and the report has been approved by the Federal
Executive Council and the President has approved
N100 billion for the committee’s disbursement.