CHAIRMAN of the Presidential Committee on
Need Assessment of Nigerian Universities and
Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, over
the weekend expressed frustration that in spite
of the demonstration of good faith by
government over demands by the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the striking
lecturers have yet to call off their strike.
He told newsmen in a chat in Abuja that the
N100 billion the federal government had been
able to raise did not come easy and when
combined with the distribution of projects in
the 61 federal universities which President
Goodluck Jonathan will kick-off soon, should
have been enough to get the lecturers back to
work.
The Federal Government had also earmarked
N30 billion for the payment of earned
allowance over which ASUU is demanding
about N90 billion.
However, Suswam maintained that there was
no way ASUU could have a bigger stake in the
university system than the Federal Government
which owned the institutions and therefore
called on them to cooperate with government
towards the resolution of the contending
issues.
According to him, “ASUU is not a better
stakeholder than the federal government. The
Universities are owned by the Federal
Government. So, the Federal Government is a
better stakeholder on issues of infrastructure
in the universities than ASUU. And so, it is for
them to collaborate together and I urge the
leadership of ASUU to collaborate with the
federal government.”
Speaking on the difficulty in raising the N100
billion, he said it was not easy for government
had to involve several agencies including the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the National
Communication Commission (NCC) and the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC).
The governor pointed out that the problem of
ASUU was no longer the issue of infrastructure
in the universities but their earned allowance
as his committee has successfully carried out
its assignment.
He added: “If they say that the 2009
agreement was delayed, at least, they have
started now with N100 billion. N100 billion is
no small money by any standard to inject into
the infrastructure need of universities and all
the 61 (federal) universities are going to
benefit. If you see the distribution the way we
have done it, all the universities are
beneficiaries within the first phase. This is just
a first phase.
“What we have done further, the President has
allowed the committee to engage more
meaningfully with these funding agencies so
that by next year, the funding money that will
be available to be injected into the
infrastructure deficit in the universities is
going to be even higher than the N100 billion.
So, I don’t think that is the problem. The basic
problem of ASUU is earned allowance. It is not
about Needs assessment.”
On whether the situation with ASUU was not a
stalemate, he explained further: “There is no
stalemate. The committee on Needs Assessment
which I chaired has done a wonderful work.
All of us inclusive of the representatives of
ASUU, together, we did the work, the
committee accepted the work and the projects
as distributed to the universities have already
been distributed with the money.
“So, there is no issue as far as the need
assessment is concerned at all because ASUU
was deeply involved in the criteria which we
adopted in the distribution of the funds, the
N100 billion.
“To be able to pull N100 billion together
wasn’t a small matter because Central Bank is
involved, NNPC is involved, NCC is involved,
all these funding agencies were all involved. I
had to take time to meet with the chief
executives of these agencies for us to
streamline the funding and we have been able
to have N100 billion which has already been
distributed.
“We are hoping that given the delays of the
due process, the President should be flagging
off some of these projects in the first week of
September. So, there is no issue with the Need
Assessment.” So with this do you think Fg or ASUU is doing the right thing?

Like enslaveing us abi....wicked old bit_ches

God will judge each and every one of you...bastards

Keep toying with people's future. Shameless politrickcians! This strike looks like it will go beyond November. God help us.

ASUU no dey try at allllll!

When a politician is talking like dis,definately,unarguable is










Sign of End time...

To hell with dis bastterd dat is talking. U ppl are frustrating me. I know it can neva be easy to provide just 100billion for all d federal universities in Nigeria but i kip on hearing trillions frm xcess crude oil account everyday. Imagin federal govt calling CBN, NNPC and NCC to donate just 100billion. So d only easy tin dat needs no committee or anybody to donate in dis doomed country is embezzlement. D most annoying part of d rubbish written above is "it was not easy to raise d 100billion cos we had to call NCC CBN NNPC CNN HIV PHD WHO NMA BBC etc to donate"

ayodeji752: To hell with dis bastterd dat is talking. U ppl are frustrating me. I know it can neva be easy to provide just 100billion for all d federal universities in Nigeria but i kip on hearing trillions frm xcess crude oil account everyday. Imagin federal govt calling CBN, NNPC and NCC to donate just 100billion. So d only easy tin dat needs no committee or anybody to donate in dis doomed country is embezzlement. D most annoying part of d rubbish written above is "it was not easy to raise d 100billion cos we had to call NCC CBN NNPC CNN HIV PHD WHO NMA BBC etc to donate"

BOOHAhahaha