Federal Government has withdrawn its threat to sack defiant striking university teachers who refused to obey its directive to resume work on Monday.
Government said it would no longer act on the ultimatum given to the lecturers under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) because majority of them returned to work in accordance with the said directive.
The Federal Government had last week ordered lecturers in federal universities to resume duty on Monday or be ready for sack in the alternative.
But the ASUU members simply ignored the government threat, insisting that they will not return to work until the Federal Government fulfils its own side of an agreement both parties entered into in 2009 on the funding of the university system in the country.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, at a press briefing on Tuesday, however, said government backed down on the controversial ultimatum because the lecturers did not dare the government.
He claimed that about 70 per cent of them returned to work on Monday in compliance with the Federal Government directive.
The government, he said, was more interested in getting issues resolved rather than escalating the crisis through muscle flexing.
Okupe also insisted that the government has fulfilled the request by ASUU that N200 billion be deposited into a special account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) following which the six month-old-strike will be called off.
Brandishing a letter from the CBN confirming the opening of the account and the deposit of N200 billion in it, Okupe said ASUU now does not have any justifiable reason to continue with the strike.
The letter from the CBN to the Accountant General of the Federation, dated December 10, with reference number GDV/DGO/GEN/MPA/05/151, was signed by CBN Deputy Governor (Operations), Tunde Lemo.
Lemo said in the letter that N200 billion has indeed been credited into the special account tagged ‘Revitalisation of Universities Infrastructure Account’.
The letter reads: “I write to confirm the execution of the following mandates by the Central Bank of Nigeria for funding of the above mentioned account as follows:
“Mandate FD/LP2013/40/1/30/DF. 129,300,000,000,00”.
“Mandate FD/FAA/124/Vol XII/120/DF. 20,700,000,000,00”.
“Mandate FD/LP2013/40/1/DF. 50,000,000,000,00”.
“I wish to further confirm that the available balance in the aforementioned account is N200,000,000,000,00 (Two hundred billion Naira only)
“Accept the assurances of my best regards.”
Okupe said the proof of the payment will be made available to ASUU and other interested parties today at a meeting to be hosted by the Ministry of Education with stakeholders like ASUU, Vice Chancellors and the committee on the needs assessment of the universities.
According to him, the meeting will essentially address the process of deciding how much of the fund will be given to each of the universities in accordance with laid down rules.
Speaking on the other three demands of ASUU, which included drafting of a MoU, assurances that no lecturer will be victimised and the continuation of talks on the 2009 controversial agreement in 2014, Okupe assured that all the conditions have been met, as they are all contained in the MoU drafted when the leaders of ASUU met with the President.
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