ASUU: FG Extends Resumption Deadline; Deposits N200bn Varsities Fund In CBN …Lecturers Vow To Continue Strike …Rescind Sack Threat -NBA

The Federal Government has extended by five days the ultimatum given to the university lecturers to call off their nationwide strike and resume classes.
The ultimatum which expires today has now extended to Monday, December 9, 2013, according to a statement by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie, yesterday in Abuja.
Already, the presidency yesterday, said that the Federal Government has met with demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU saying there was no need to maintain the strike, just as it stressed that the agreement was reached sequel to the last meeting held between Federal Government and ASUU.
According to the Presidency, the administration believes that with the agreement and the result of the votes across the campuses, ASUU has no reason for further sustenance of the strike, even as it called on the union to comply with the call on them to resume work without further delay.
Speaking  in Abuja during an interactive session with leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students’ Matters, Comrade Jude Imagwe who noted that a larger membership of ASUU campus chapters had voted for the immediate call-off of the strike, stressed that the directive given by the government was not targeted to threaten the ASUU leadership, but designed to show government’s commitment towards ensuring that all university students returned to school.
According to him, ASUU leaders must work in line with the directives by ensuring that all students got back to the campus as the government would ensure a water-tight security on the campuses, adding, “The Nigerian public should be informed that the government has met all the promises they made on this ASUU issue. If they have not agreed, there was no reason for them to have said they would meet their members and get back. It means there was an agreement that was reached.
“The Minister of Education announced that lecturers should resume, it was not in anyway targeted at threatening or compelling the leadership of ASUU to go back to school.”
In his remarks, NANS president, Comrade Yinka who maintained that his association was neutral, said that it supports a just cause, adding that the association was standing by the government because it was working in line with its desire which was for all schools to reopen.
However, the ASUU said there is no going back on its five-month old strike until government honours the agreement they had with President Goodluck Jonathan.
Describing the deadline given by the Federal Government as an “ordinary threat,” ASUU President, Nasir Fagge, who maintained that ASUU was not making any new demand, declared at a media briefing in Abuja that “ the strike will end when government implements the agreement as we agreed with President Goodluck Jonathan.”
Fagge said “He (Jonathan) gave us assurance that in 2014,  the agreement will not be renegotiated just as he had promised us when we interacted with him in that 13-hour duration. We thank Mr. President for his patience but let us also do what is right.”
ASUU, during the marathon meeting with President Jonathan, had asked him to facilitate the resolution of the contending issues as a way of concretising their understanding of the agreed position.
According to Fagge, ASUU had requested among other things: That the N200 billion agreed upon as 2013 Revitalisation Fund for public universities shall be deposited with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and disbursed to the benefitting universities within two weeks;
That the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement in 2014 be included in the final document as agreed at the discussion with Jonathan;
That a nonvictimisation clause which is normally captured in all interactions of this nature be included in the final document and that a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) shall be validly endorsed and signed by a representative of government, preferably the Attorney General of the Federation and a representative of ASUU, with the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as a witness.
Fagge said: “Upon any sincere stretch of interpretation, it would be unreasonable to suggest that this is a new demand. ASUU National Executive Council’s position that the funds for revitalisation due to universities in 2013 should be released within the first two weeks of December 2013 is not a new demand. It is a sensible suggestion to guard against implementation failure.
“On the renegotiation of the agreement in 2014, there was an agreement at the interaction with the President of Nigeria that the renegotiation of the ASUU/FG agreement of 2009 shall be undertaken in 2014.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Government said it has deposited the sum of N200bn promised to ASUU as funding to universities into an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, confirmed this yesterday in separate interactions with newsmen.
The amount is meant for the renewal of infrastructure in public universities in the country.
Okupe, who featured on Channels Television programme ‘Sunrise Daily’, said from the government’s perspective, everything that needed to be done had been done.
According to him, most of the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have been agreed upon at the 13-hour meeting the union had with President Goodluck Jonathan which ended in the early hours of October 4.
He said, “At the end of that meeting, the Government proposed that everything that has been agreed should be put in a memorandum of agreement and that the two parties should sign, but the leadership of ASUU declined and said instead of that, they would rather have a letter of comfort expressing everything that has been resolved therein, and that will suffice for them.”
Okupe stressed that the attitude of the ASUU leadership showed that the seed of discord and evidence of bad faith already existed.
“It is unfortunate that somebody died but notwithstanding, that cannot be a justification for delaying the implementation of an agreement for 21 or more days,” he said.
Also at a press conference in Abuja, Okojie, who also confirmed that the money had been deposited in CBN, said the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had confirmed to him that the N200bn had been deposited in the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In a related development, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has urged the Federal Government to rescind its decision to sack striking university lecturers who failed to return to the classes on or before December 4.
The call was contained in a statement signed by, the National President of the association, Mr. Okey Wali (SAN) in Abuja, yesterday.
“Our attention has been drawn to the 7-day ultimatum to return to work or be sacked, given by the Federal Government to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) due to the ongoing strike action by ASUU. “The NBA implores the Federal Government to rescind the said ultimatum, as that evidently will not resolve the crisis. “While we call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to set aside the ultimatum given to ASUU, we also call on ASUU to hearken to the appeals from several segments of the society and call off the strike action,” the statement admonished.
According to the statement, calling-off of the strike will ensure that students who have been away from school for so long, can go back to school.
“Besides the harm and dislocation of academic work, the enormous anti-social problems associated with keeping children away from school for this long cannot be over-emphasised. “We encourage both parties to continue discussions and negotiations while the schools are in session in earnest. “ Negotiation is about give and take. The interest and welfare of the students must at all times remain paramount,” the statement said.

L-R: Rivers Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr Dickson Umunakwe, Executive Director, Rivers Sustainable Development Agency, Mr Noble Pepple, and Secretary to the State Government, Mr George Feyii, at the 2013 International Day of Persons with Disabilities, in Port Harcourt, yesterday.