Still on the matter: ASUU strike.

A crucial meeting between the leadership of the striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and President Goodluck Jonathan has dragged into the late nightie yesterday, November 4, without words on whether a truce was in sight.
It was the first meeting between the union and President Jonathan since the strike began 1 July, shutting down almost all state and Federal government owned universities in Nigeria.
The Federal Government had initially offered the striking teachers N30billion to pay for allowances piled up since government and the union hammered out an agreement in 2009. Government also offered N100billion to pay for improvements of facilities in the universities.
ASUU rejected the offer as too small and insisted on government implementing in full the 2009 agreement.
The negotiation with the president’s team reportedly went on a short break at about6.30 p.m.
The meeting started in the afternoon, at about 2:40 pm inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
On the President’s negotiating team are the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, who had held a deadlocked meeting with ASUU in the past, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim; Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike; and Minister of Labour, Emeka Wogu among others.
The ASUU team is led by its Chairman, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, Prof. Abdulahi Sule-Kano, Prof. Dipo Fashina and Prof. Festus Iyayi, Prof. Suleiman Abdul, and Prof. Abdullahi Sule-Kano.
Also at the meeting are the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulawahid Omar and that of the Trade Union Congress, Bobboi Kaigama.
In banters with the ASUU team, President Jonathan while shaking hands with Fagge said:
“My president, I hope it will end today. Our children have suffered enough. We must find a solution.”
All those in attendance responded with a loud “amen.”
Jonathan also expressed similar optimism when he greeted the NLC president:
“My president with you around today, there will be no problem, our agreement is signed, sealed and delivered.”

However, see the synopsis of ASUU demands below:

The agreement included details such as the breakdown of lecturers’ salary structure, staff loans, pension, overtime, and moderation of examinations.

Part of the agreement dwelt on funding of universities where both parties agreed that each federal university should get at least N1.5 trillion between 2009 and 2011 while state universities, within the same period, should receive N3.6 million per student.

The agreement also had parts that asked the re-negotiation committee to ensure that at least 26 percent of Nigeria’s annual budget was allocated to education, and half of that allocation to universities.

The agreement also asked that the 2004 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Act, and the National University Commission Act 2004, be amended.

Text of the suggested amendment bills – including suggestion for amendment of the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act 2004 – were provided in the agreements.

The agreement was signed by Bolanle Babalakin, the then chairman of Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities; Gamaliel Onosode, chairman of the re-negotiation committee; and Ukachukwu Awuzei, the then president of ASUU.

The agreement demanded a heavy financial commitment from the government and was an adaptation of an earlier agreement reached in 2001.

It is unclear how much of the agreement have been implemented by the government.

However, the secretary to the federation, Pius Anyim, after one of the recent failed negotiations, said that most of the issues contained in the 2009 agreement, had been fully met except for the earned allowances estimated at N92 billion.

“Some of the issues which bothered on amendment of pensionable retirement age of academics in the professorial cadre, consolidated peculiar allowances (CONPUAA)- exclusively for university teaching staff, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), setting up of budget monitoring committee in all public universities have been fully implemented,” he disclosed.