ASUU PRESIDENT, NASIR FAGGE
SAN FRANCISCO, December 02, (THEWILL) – Ahead of the December 4 deadline given by the Federal Government for striking university lecturers to return to work or be sacked, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday said there is no going back on its five-month old strike until government honours the agreement ASUU 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 non–victimisation 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.”
