Initially, the President, Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan, did not want to be involved
directly. He only wanted to do so through
proxies. It started with Governor Gabriel Suswam-
led universities Needs Assessment
Implementation Committee and later
Namadi Sambo-led mediation committee,
none of which succeeded in brokering
agreements that could bring an end to the strike. Much later, the Senate led by its President,
David Mark, dismissed the 2009 agreement
between the Federal Government and the
striking union as unrealistic, while
the House of Representatives offered to
approve a budgetary intervention to enable ASUU end the strike. The Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who
was briefed by the Aminu Suleiman-led
House Committee on Education asked to
investigate and recommend solution
appealed to the warring parties to resolve
the issues involved in the interest of the students and the educational future of the
nation. None of the arguments cut an ice
with ASUU. Crisis of confidence occasioned by
unguarded remarks on the part of
government negotiators, and suspicion, on
the part of ASUU national officials led by
the President, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, leading to
prolonged impasse, eventually made Jonathan to personally wade into the
matter, after ASUU had refused to call off
the strike despite his pleas to it to do so, in
many a public forum. Setting the stage for a fruitful discussion Whereas the Federal Government delegation
led by Jonathan had on its team, the Vice
President, Namadi Sambo, the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation (SGF),
Anyim Pius Anyim, Chief of Staff to the
President, Mike Oghiadomhe, Coordinating Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, supervising Minister of
Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, Minister of
Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu;
National Universities Commission (NUC),
Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie and other presidential aides, including Dr.
Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, the ASUU
nine-man team led by Dr. Fagge, included
former ASUU Presidents like Prof. Dipo
Fashina and Prof. Festus Iyayi, President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abduwaheed
Omar; President, Trade Union Congress
(TUC), Boboyi Kaigama, Prof. Abdullahi
Sule-Kano and Suleiman Abdul, among
others. Earlier while entering the conference room,
Jonathan had said, in the course of
exchanging pleasantries with Dr. Fagge: "My
President, I am sure the problem will be over
today. Our children must go back to school."
And, when he got to where Omar was seated, he said: "My President, with you here, it is
signed and sealed." So, what was it that was discussed
afterward that brought us to the stage
where we are now? Both officials of ASUU
and government representatives had kept
sealed lips on the details of discussion and
outcome of the 13-hour marathon meeting which started at 2.40 pm last Monday, and
was adjourned about 7pm for a 15-minute
break before being reconvened later in the
evening and continuing into about 3am of
the following day. But Education Review understands from
source close to the Presidency that after
more banters inside the conference room,
the meeting kicked off on a more earnest
note with the President expressing his wish
to see the end of the strike and to do anything within his power, to make whatever
concessions he can to break the deadlock so
that universities can be re-opened. Reminding the audience of the various
efforts he'd made and committees he set up
to resolve the crisis, including the Suswam
and Namadi Sambo-led committees, the
President was said to have argued that they
showed his earnest desire to have the issues involved resolved amicably so that students
and staff can go back to school. But he had
to personally take it upon himself, to come
in, he said, when stalemates ensued.
Reiterating the commitment of his
administration to adequately fund the universities and provide the necessary
infrastructures to aid the education
sector, he added that that was why he was
anxious to see the matter resolved by
inviting stakeholders present to the meeting
at the State House. He noted that his administration is as concerned as ASUU,
about the state of infrastructures in our
universities and is determined to see that
something is done about the situation
within the limited resources available. It
was because of this, he said, that he approved the setting up of the Needs
Assessment Implementation Committee as
well as the creation of TETFund (Tertiary
Education Trust Fund) from the former ETF
(Education Trust Fund). Government has also increased the budget
of education progressively from N234.8
billion in 2010 to N426.5 billion in 2013 with
N55.74 billion allocated to the university
sub-sector alone, he said. Responding, Fagge while thanking the
President for the gestures, was said to have,
however, expressed his misgivings over what
he calls the efforts of Federal government's
functionaries/representatives to
blackmail the union by misrepresenting the facts of the case to the Nigerian public on
the government's inability to honour and
implement the Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) reached with the
union in 2009. Meeting points It will be recalled that the agreements
ASUU signed with the Federal government in
2009 included funding requirements for
revitalisation of the Nigerian universities;
Federal government assistance to state
universities; establishment of NUPEMCO and progressive increase in annual
budgetary allocation to education to 26 per
cent between 2009 and 2020; and earned
allowances. In the agreement, ASUU had demanded for
N1.5 trillion within a spate of three years
from the federal government for the
funding of universities outside the normal
yearly budgetary allocation. Aside the N1.5 trillion funds for universities
from 2009-2011, ASUU equally demanded
for 'Earned Allowance' outside its
conventional monthly emoluments. They
include allowances for the following:
postgraduate supervision allowance, teaching practice/ industrial supervision/
field trip allowance and honoraria for
external / internal examiner. Others are
honoraria for external moderation of
undergraduate and postgraduate
examination, post-graduate study grant, external assessment of readers or
professors, call duty/clinical duty / clinic
hazard, responsibility allowance and excess
workload allowance. But during last Monday's talks with the
President, sources privy to the meeting said
that Fagge reportedly recalled that an
Implementation Monitoring Committee for
the 2009 agreement, made up of two
members representing the Committee of Pro- Chancellors, The Chairman, Committee of
Vice-Chancellors, one member representing
the NUC Secretary, one member representing
the Federal Ministry of Education, five
members representing ASUU, NAAT, SSANU,
NASU, one representative of the Senate Committee on Education, one representative
of the House of Committee on Education,
Chairman, Pro-Chancellor of State
Universities, and Chairman, Committee of
Vice-Chancellors of State Universities was
set up and wondered why ASUU was being demonized over its reference to the state
universities in the course of its agitation
over the implementation of the 2009
agreement. In addition, he was said to have politely
begged to disagree with the President's
remarks during the his media chat in
October that the major reason for the
strike which he (the President) said, has
been politicised, is the N79 billion Earned Allowance arrears. He argued that contrary
to the government propaganda and
misinformation, the strike was for the
betterment of university education in the
country, which he noted was in shambles. Following apologies, assurances and
corrections over mirespresentations and
misconceptions of public speeches, the
meeting reportedly went into a prolonged
negotiation over the main agenda: the
contentious 2009 Govt/ ASUU agreement. It was after exhaustive deliberations and
negotiations that ran into hours that
Jonathan offered N220 billion per annum
over the next five years. He was also said to
have withdrawn the no-work, no-pay threat,
even as he assured the union that his administration was not thinking of
forcefully reopening the universities,
contrary to the rumours making the rounds
in the media. The President also promised to
personally sign the new MoU that will be
reached, after the meeting of ASUU's NEC (National Executive Council).
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