Nigerian Government Break Off Negotiations With Striking University Professors, Claims ASUU Has Been Infiltrated By Opposition Politicians

Minister of Education, Prof. Ruquayatu Rufa'I •Alleges opposition has inflitrated union •Considers introduction of financial aid to students •Govt is insincere, varsity dons insist Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano and Damilola Oyedele in Abuja With no end in sight to the debilitating strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the federal government, which has been holding negotiations with the union for weeks, with the aim of reaching a compromise on its demands, may be forced to break off negotiations, THISDAY investigations have revealed. Arising from a meeting yesterday in Abuja, members of the committees set up by the federal government to negotiate with ASUU expressed their frustration that they had not been able to make any meaningful progress despite all the offers made to the lecturers and resolved to halt further negotiations. A source, who was privy to the meeting, informed THISDAY that the decision by the federal government’s negotiating team to call ASUU’s bluff was also informed by security reports that the union had been infiltrated by opposition parties which have egged on the lecturers to remain inflexible to the government’s offers. ASUU however remained adamant yesterday when it dismissed the N100 billion offered by government for university infrastructure and accused it of insincerity, stating that the amount reportedly being disbursed to tertiary institutions was not part of the 2009 Agreement or 2012 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into with the federal government. Commenting on the uncompromising stance of the union, the source said it is this kind of attitude that the federal government has found extremely frustrating. “We are trying to meet their demands within reason, but ASUU has remained stubborn insisting on all or nothing,” he said. He accused ASUU of being unpatriotic and not acting in the best interest of the students and the country at large, which has suffered the brunt of the strike. “ASUU has not been patriotic despite the willingness by government to meet some of their demands. Instead, they have remained unyielding. “The federal government is also alarmed over security reports reaching it that ASUU has been infiltrated by opposition parties that have encouraged the lecturers to keep the universities closed to make political capital,” he disclosed. He said the situation had compelled the government to consider a number of options to reform the university system, including a report which was presented to the committees yesterday. The report, he said, focused on the demographics of the university student population in the country and how much the federal government spends on each student in a four-year degree programme. “The report showed that the total student population in federal universities in the country is 1.8 million to 2 million. By making university education free, it costs the federal government, on average, N6 million per student in a four-year degree programme. “Compare this to most private universities where it costs parents an average of N4 million in the same period and the quality of education and graduates churned out are much better. “Meanwhile, the report also showed that there are some 80 million Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 25 who want to get a university education but cannot get admission into schools and are frustrated. “This means that the federal university system is running an inefficient structure which has to be reformed,” the source explained. He pointed out that one of the options available to the federal government is the introduction of financial aid, similar to what obtains in the United States of America, to cater to students’ needs. “This financial aid does not mean that students will now be made to pay school fees. That is not the intention of the assistance to be provided through financial aid. It will be a throwback to the bursary system and will be provided to students to help take care of their basic needs such as feeding, accommodation and books. “It is similar to what obtains in the US through which money in the form of soft loans are disbursed directly to students which will be repaid when they get jobs,” he said. He said the introduction of financial aid was informed by the report, which traced the high rate of delinquency, cultism, sexual molestation and general indiscipline in the universities to lack of access to financial resources by students to meet their needs. The source pointed out that this is what the federal government expected of ASUU by keying into some of these problems, not just their demands. “The agitation by ASUU needs to key into the rot in the system; the lecturers ought to be concerned about falling academic standards and output, not just mere salaries,” he said. However, the union has said the N100 billion reportedly being disbursed to the universities by the federal government was not part of the 2009 Agreement or the 2012 MoU. On this basis, ASUU promised to sustain the strike, which is now in its 9th week and accused the government of insincerity. The National President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Fagge, in a telephone interview with THISDAY yesterday, said the distribution of the money amounted to employing half-hearted measures to tackle the problems of the education system in the country. He explained that the 2009 agreement stipulates that within three years, the government would make available N1.5 trillion to federal universities amounting to about N500 billion per annum. In the 2012 MoU, it was negotiated that the government would make available N1.3 trillion in four years for federal and state universities after the government said it was having difficulties implementing the earlier agreement, which ASUU accepted reluctantly. The ASUU president added that the federal government said it would set up a committee to assess the needs of the universities and the technical report of the committee recommended that the government should immediately make available N800 billion for two years. “So on this N100 billion, which aspect of all this dialogue and issues which were documented, is being implemented? Is it the agreement, the MoU, or the Needs assessment report? That is what we should be asking. “We are asking them to implement the agreement, and they are doing something else which is not in it,” he said. He reiterated the stance of the union requesting the government to implement the 2009 agreement so that the lecturers could return to the classrooms.