The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called for redistribution of N132 billion to ensure 90 per cent goes to the tertiary institutions.
This came as Federal Government recently approved N320.3 billion 2023 intervention for public tertiary institutions in the country.
ASUU had in October 2022, called off an eight-month strike after a series of negotiations with the Federal Government.
Part of the lecturers’ demands is the release of revitalization funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
In an interview with Channels TV on Thursday, April 6, ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke commended the government for the release of the fund.
“It (N320bn fund) is a good development, this is part of what we struggle for in 1994. It is our struggle, but there are issues we need to sort out,” Osodeke said.
‘‘When you check the allocation of about N1.2 billion to universities and others, you find out that the total for all the universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education come to just about N186 billion allocated out of about N320, leaving a balance of N132 billion that has not been accounted for.
‘‘What are we using that N132 billion which is 41% of the total amount of money? Is it for bureaucracy or for what?
“This is what has been happening in TETFund and I think there is a need to examine what exactly is happening at TETFund. The idea of this TETFund when it was negotiated by ASUU was that this money will come and be distributed to the universities, not keeping 41% for whatever purpose.
“I think we need a redistribution of this fund to ensure that it accounts for 90% of what has been approved to go to universities, polytechnic and not kept as bureaucracy or whatever. You need to tell the public what TETFund is doing with the balance of N132 billion,” the ASUU chairman said.
The ASUU chief, however, said that the Federal Government is yet to address most of the demands it made during the strike it embarked upon in 2022.
One of the demands, according to Osodeke, includes the payment of salary backlogs.
“As far as this present government is concerned, once the strike is over, the issue is resolved unknown to them that a strike is a symptom of a problem. They have abandoned the problem.
‘‘Since we called off the strike based on a court directive, not a single meeting has been called. Not a kobo has been paid,” he said.
According to him, the union members are battling to meet up with the academic calendar in spite of the government’s posture.
“It is so unfortunate that they don’t have any regard for the Nigerian education system,’’ he added.
