FG, ASUU Meeting Deadlocked, Postponed Till Next Week

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige,

Govt demands accountability of N30bn expenditure, insists on TSA

Senator Iroegbu and Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

The hope of early resumption of academic activities on university campuses by students and their parents was dashed thursday as the conciliation meeting between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) remains deadlocked.

The parties have agreed to resume meeting in a week’s time.
The meeting which was conveyed thursday by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, in his office, had in attendance; the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, and his team, the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze; Chairman of the Salaries and Wages Commission, representatives of the National Universities Commission (NUC), members of ASUU led by its National President, Dr. Debo Ogunyemi, and senior staff of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Ngige in his opening remarks accused ASUU of not following the proper procedure before embarking on strike.
According to him, “There must be a mandatory letter of 15 days to labour ministry, to education before going on strike.”

He insisted that all agreements were supposed to be domiciled in ministry of labour in order to track implementation as agreement gives room to renegotiation.

The minister said: “Two days ago, we met here on the ban of ASUU by the Kogi State Government and thereafter, on the sideline, we touched the current ASUU strike which has led us to where we are. Today, we are going to discuss the issue of that strike. We don’t want to apportion blames because if we do, we will not resolve the issues. Also, we don’t want to be legalistic because if we do, the strike should not have occurred without the mandatory notice as required by the Trade Dispute Act.

“If we want to apportion blames, certain things have also been done by the government side that went to do the negotiation in the National Assembly and made political agreement with them, and that collective bargaining agreement was not domicile in this ministry. This is the ministry which is the only agency that has the mandate to resolve labour issues between employers and employees as per the Nigerian constitution. In all, government is desirous to attend to the issues raised and is not trying to show any bad faith. The issues are well known to all of us because they are a product of the 2009 agreement whose fallout was the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2013 with which government was supposed to release some funds.

“Last November, we all agreed that the funds released should be audited forensically and that why that is going on, some amount of money should be released. One or two things happened and due to laspses to Labour administration, there were some trajectory that made it impossible for some of the conditions not to have been fulfilled.
“The Babalakin committee is working on those issues and I know that ASUU members, as knowledgeable men are aware that ILO conventions permits that there should be renegotiation and that was why we allowed the Ministry of Education go ahead with the renegotiation of the CBA.”

However, before the parley went into a technical session, Ngige noted that government is desirous to many of the issues raised by ASUU, hence the decision to call the conciliation meeting to look into a possible renegotiation between the two sides in line with the International Labour Organisation Convention.

He said it was based on this that he, as the chief conciliator, urged the Ministry of Education to go ahead with the renegotiation so that students can go back to school and conclude their examinations.

He gave an insight into the modality of the meeting that it will not leave any room for apportioning of blames, and that it would not be legalistic for a melting point to quickly be reached.

But Ogunyemi, in his response, disagreed with Ngige, stressing that the minister had taken side with his education counterpart, Adamu.

He insisted that ASUU informed relevant ministries before embarking on strike, noting that there was a letter dated July 10 to inform the major stakeholders.

The ASUU president said in the last 10 months, the union had written 10 letters trying to reach out to relevant stakeholders after suspending the seven days warning strike in November last year.

He clarified that the strike is not a fresh action and that they are open to suggestions.

After their opening remarks, the meeting later went into a technical session, which lasted for hours.

While briefing the media afterwards, Ogunyemi said there was progress in the discussions but that it was unfortunate that it was not finalised because the leadership of ASUU had to go back and brief its members on the terms given by the government and come back in a week’s time when the meeting would resume with a further resolution of the universities teachers.

He, however, did not give a hint of government’s proposal but said the strike would continue and that the union would revert to the government next week.

On whether the strike will be called off before then, he said: “The leadership of the union did not call the strike, our members called the strike and they will decide when to suspend the strike.
“So, when our members decide otherwise, it will be off,” he said.

On his part, Ngige said: “Within the last 48 hours, government has been working. The Minister of Education, Minister of Finance, Attorney General of the Federation and we have taken some government positions which we have communicated to ASUU for them to take back to their members to see if that can be adequate enough for them to call off the strike.

“The major issue is that we want the strike called off so that our children in school can write their degree and promotion exams. ASUU graciously said they will come back to us on a date within the next one week. It will not be later than one week so that we then take it from there.”

Meanwhile, the federal government has disclosed that it has demanded the details of the expenditure of N30 billion from ASUU, as a precondition for the release of N23 billion being requested for, by the striking union.

It also refused to back down from its insistence that the universities would not be excluded from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), despite the opposition of ASUU, which declared an indefinite strike last Monday, following the non implementation of the 2009 agreement.

The Minister of Education, Adamu, while, speaking before the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education yesterday, however expressed hope that the strike would be called off next week, as negotiations are currently ongoing.
“They (ASUU) asked for N23 billion to be paid. But we said the condition for that N23 billion to be released, was for them to account for the N30 billion they had taken, and they were not able to account for it,” he said.
Adamu did not reveal when the N30 billion was given to the universities.

“The Minister of Finance undertook to do the audit from the ministry, and we agreed that the result will be known in six months. During that six months, government undertook to be paying them N1.5 billion each month during the time they are waiting for this. And their grouse was the forensic audit promised by the Minister of Finance had not been done and the money promised had not been paid,” he added.

The minister stated that at a meeting with the union early this week, some agreements were reached.

“So, at our meeting two days ago, our agreements were at follows. And we will pay them all and do forensic audit on the entire N53 billion. And that is what I tried to do yesterday (Wednesday). I wrote to the Minister of Finance and she has already approved and this money will be paid. Probably, by Monday, they will be able to receive the cheque,”

“There are other issues which we didn’t agree. And that was their request to be taken out of TSA. I told them that it is not possible because this is s new policy and government is not going to change it for anyone,” Adamu said.
The Minister blamed the authorities of the universities for recruiting staff without due process, as causing the shortfalls in salaries.

“Concerning their salary short fall, we said a lot of the reasons spring from what they are doing wrong. They go and do a lot of employment without proper authority. For instance, a university can just decide to go and recruit 50 people. And IPPIS is not aware. What they are going to get is the money they got last month, and it will not be sufficient for them. They normally spread it among the entire staff. Let’s say they pay 70 percent to 80 percent but that is their fault. So, institutions, we said, must now stop doing that. And they accepted,” he said.

”There is the issue of the registration of their pension commission. I think they have one or two issues to iron out with PENCOM. And I believe they will also be able to solve the problem within a week. The issue of renegotiation is already going on. And it is unaffected by what were have said and it will continue. From the way they received it, I think it is possible that the strike will be called off within a week maximum,” Adamu disclosed.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Jibrin Barau expressed hope that the strike would be resolved next week, as stated by the minister, so students can return to school.

Culled from Thisday

Suspect lynched for kidnapping three school pupils in Lagos

By Odita Sunday, Maria Diamond and Jumoke Adedeji 

Brown Street, Oshodi, where the suspected kidnapper was clubbed to death following the alleged kidnap of three children who were returning from their holiday coaching.

Despite repeated warning by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni and the arrest of over 30 suspects for jungle justice, a suspected kidnapper was yesterday lynched by an angry mob in Akinpelu, Oshodi area of Lagos State.
The Guardian gathered that the suspect was killed for allegedly attempting to kidnap three babies. The Lagos State police command said he was killed before the arrival of a police patrol team. Some persons at the scene of the crime have been arrested by the Akinpelu police station.
There was pandemonium at Brown Street, Oshodi, as the suspected kidnapper was clubbed to death following the alleged kidnap of three children who were returning from their holiday coaching.
According to eyewitnesses, the alleged kidnapper was caught with a big bag, popularly known as Ghana must go, which he was struggling with along Salami Street. This prompted suspicious residents to question him, and to their surprise, they discovered three children in the bag he carried.
The abducted children were said to have lost their voices due to suffocation as they barely struggled to stay alive until they were rescued.
Sources told The Guardian that before the suspect was lynched, he alleged to be a Further Mathematics teacher from one Odeogberin International Nursery and Primary School at Owoseni Street, Oshodi but when he was taken to the school, the headmaster said he was not a teacher and had never seen him before.
A resident, who simply identified herself as Omotoke, said area boys took the kidnapper around and asked for his identity but when no one recognized him, they stripped him of his clothes.
“When they opened his bag, two of the children appeared to have died while one was still breathing. At the sight of the lifeless bodies, the angry mob beat him until he died,” she said.
Another eyewitness said a police van drove by twice during the lynching but gave them the go ahead to kill the kidnapper.
When The Guardian visited the Akinpelu police station, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) noted that the suspect’s body has been deposited in mortuary.
Lagos State police spokesman, Olarinde Famous-Cole, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) told newsmen that the case is that of jungle justice.
According to Famous-Cole, “the information I received from the DPO is that someone was lynched by a mob for attempting to kidnap two babies. The DPO has been waiting for anyone to come and report attempted kidnap of his or her babies, but as we speak no one has shown up. Before our police officers could get to scene, the suspect was killed.
“Our officers took the body of the suspect to the hospital and arrested some persons who were at the scene when the incident happened in order to aid our investigation.”
The Lagos State police boss, Fatai Owoseni, who spoke to The Guardian on telephone, noted that he has not been briefed about the matter.

Culled from Guardian

ASUU begins indefinite strike

By Kanayo Umeh, Ogune Matthew and Joseph  Onyekwere

ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi

• NANS, others seek quick resolution of crisis
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has commenced an indefinite nationwide industrial action.
About 40 federal and 44 state universities in the country would be affected by the strike which began yesterday.
ASUU’s leadership declared the strike as total and indefinite, and has threatened to sanction any defaulting institution which holds lectures, examination or any nocturnal meeting while the action would last.
The strike followed the outcome of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held by the leadership of ASUU and the state chairmen on Saturday in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), culminating in the official announcement of the industrial action at the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abuja yesterday.
Briefing journalists at a press conference yesterday in Abuja, ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, said the action became necessary owing to an alleged breach of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the 2009 FG/ASUU Agreement on financing of state universities; breach of the conditions of service; refusing to honour the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) and re-negotiation of the agreement.
Ogunyemi said the 2009 agreement revolved around conditions of service, funding, university autonomy and academic freedom, all of which the government has been reluctant to implement.
The Federal Government is believed to owe universities over N880 billion in intervention fund as a fallout of the NEEDS Assessment report.
Also, the union is irked by lack of funds for the revitilisation of public universities, non-release of NUPEMCO operational licence, non-payment of earned academic allowances, payment of fractions/non-payment of salaries.
In the 2013 MoU signed with ASUU, the Federal Government agreed to make money available for the revitalisation of the university system, amounting to N1.3trillion in six years, based on a yearly release of N220billion, starting with N200 billion in 2013.
There was also an agreement to open a dedicated revitalisation account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to warehouse the funds, including setting up a central monitoring committee to monitor the implementation of the revitalisation of the universities.
ASUU is also accusing the government of reneging on the payment of outstanding balance of the EAA after the verification of the payment made from the initial N30 billion, among others.
“Consequently, based on a nationwide consultation with our members, an emergency meeting of the NEC of ASUU rose on Saturday, August12, 2017 with a resolution to embark on an indefinite strike.
“The action is total and comprehensive. During the strike, there shall be no teaching, no examination and no attendance of statutory meetings of any kind in any of our branches,” the ASUU President declared.
But a faction of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) pleaded with ASUU to seek alternative avenues to resolve its dispute with the Federal Government.
The National Public Relations Officer of the faction, Comrade Bestman Okereafor, made the appeal in a statement issued in Enugu yesterday.
Okereafor said that the strike would “definitely portend ill for the education sector’’ and the country in general.
He said that NANS agreed that issues being agitated for by ASUU were long-standing but declared that previous strikes had never really brought the desired results.
Another faction of NANS issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to resolve outstanding issues with ASUU in the interest of Nigerian students.
Leader of the faction, Comrade Chinonso Obasi, who spoke to The Guardian yesterday in Abuja, described the breakdown in negotiations as a further proof that political leaders don’t care about their future.
“It is with deep pain and regret that NANS received the news of another indefinite strike by ASUU over Federal Government’s indifference to their plight.
“Consequently, we wish to call on the government to do all it can to get ASUU back to the classrooms.”
According to Obasi, the demands of ASUU are reasonable and touch on the integrity of government, especially in the light of the fight against corruption.
The Executive Director, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Adetokunbo Mumuni, urged the government to urgently resolve the issue with ASUU so as to abort the strike. He noted that the economic implication of such a strike would be enormous.
“When such strikes are embarked on, those who do small scale businesses in the campuses such as photocopying and computer centers bear the brunt as their income dwindles. They, and their dependants, suffer the consequences,” he stated.
According to him, the students are always at the short end of the stick whenever strikes take place and they are becoming more too often.
Former dean, faculty of law, Kogi State University, Prof. Allswell Osini Muzan thinks differently. He believes that there are issues giving rise to the strike and that they must be addressed.

Culled from Guardian