FG Has No Funds– Ngige
The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, has stated that the Federal Government does not have enough funds to meet its obligations in the 2009 agreement signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Dr. Ngige said the government was considering a renegotiation of the terms of the agreement with ASUU, in the effort to end the ongoing strike by university lecturers.
The Minister made this known on Thursday while appearing on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television.
When asked if he agreed that the government had failed to fulfil its side of the agreement with ASUU, Ngige replied “No”.
When asked about the conflict between FG and ASUU, the minister said, “I am hoping that ASUU should do the right thing and contact their members about the renegotiations that we have had in the last two weeks. First, we have agreed on the issue of earned academic allowances, and have given a timeline to the NUC to go back to the old template used in working out the 2021 earned academic allowance (10.8 per cent of personnel cost) “We need them to go back very quickly and use that same formula and get us what we are supposed to pay in 2022.”
On revitalisation of the Universities, Ngige said “the amount paid is not obvious but the actual amount paid is being determined as well.”
On the release of N1.3tn between 2013 and 2018 to revitalise the universities, with N200bn released in 2013 and only N70bn released in the last seven years, the minister, who noted that government is a continuum, stated that the N1.3tn was promised by the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration. According to him, oil was selling at between $100 and $120 per barrel then, while the revenue of the Federation was rich.
Dr. Ngige added said the agreement between 2016 and 2017“ Right now the government does not have enough funds to fulfil its side of the bargain.
In his words: “the government is now calling for renegotiation of the agreement with ASUU, “Unless you want us to go and take money from TETFUND and deceive you as it was done in that period, and place it for you on the table.”
