ASUU ‘wants N1.5tr’ to end strike!

The Senate on Wednesday said that the striking Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) wants N1.5 trillion to end
its ongoing strike.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education,
Senator Uche Chukwumerije, released the figure in his
contribution on a motion urging the striking lecturers to call
off their strike.
The motion sponsored by the Senate Leader, Senator Victor
Ndoma-Egba, and 106 others is entitled:
"Appeal to
Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off the strike
action and return to work."
Chukwumerije, who read the controversial 2009 agreement
between the Federal Government and ASUU, said that part
of the component of the agreement on funding stipulated
that "all regular federal universities shall require the sum of
N1.5 trillion for the period 2009 to 2011.
He said that ASUU is insisting that the agreement must be
implemented to the latter.
He said the agreement also said that "This money is to be
paid in three installments, 2009 – almost N500 billion;
2010 – almost N500 billion and 2011 – almost N506
billion.
Apart from the N1.5 trillion the agreement also stipulated
that "each state university shall require N3.6 million" while
"a minimum of 26 per cent of the annual budget should be
allocated to education."
According to him, the agreement also said that "education
should be put on First Line Charge" while the Education Tax
Act should be amended to its original concept as High
Education Fund."
He noted that the agreement said that "Governing Council
of Universities should access and effectively utilize from
Education Tax Fund funds for research, training and
development of academic staff."
Other components of the agreement included Salary
Structure of Academic Staff of Nigerian universities and
earned academic staff allowances.
The earned academic staff allowances include: "Post
graduate supervision allowances; teaching practice and
industrial allowances; honorarium for external moderation
of undergraduate and postgraduate examination system,
postgraduate study grants; external assessment of readers
or professors, call duty and clinical duty and hazard allowance and excess workload allowance
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