FG Shows Evidence N200bn For ASUU

The presidential aide addressed the media on Wednesday.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public
Affairs, Doyin Okupe, has provided evidence that the
Federal Government has opened an account for public
universities at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The opening of the account and disbursement of N200
billion to the universities within two weeks was one of the
demands made by ASUU before they would call off the five months old strike.

ASUU president, Nasir Fagge, had stated in an interview
with Channels TV that the opening of the account and the
disbursement of the money to the Universities would make the lecturers call off the strike.

“Once that is done, and the committee that is supposed to disburse the funds starts working, our members will have no reason not to suspend the strike action,” he said.

Mr. Fagge had also addressed a press conference on
Monday in which he stated that a central monitoring
committee should be established to monitor the usage of
the revitalisation fund and should submit quarterly reports to the Minister of Education.
Speaking to journalists in his office on Wednesday, Mr.
Okupe showed reporters evidence of correspondences
between the office of the Accountant General of the
Federation, AGF, and the Central Bank.
The documents showed that on November 13, the AGF
authorized the banking and payment system department
of the Central Bank of Nigeria via a letter with reference
number FD/OAGF/220/ADC/1/4DF to open a “revitalization
of Universities Infrastructural Account” with the CBN.
Also, on November 29, the Central Bank confirmed in a
letter reference BPSD/BSD/CON VOL 17/088 to the
Accountant General of the Federation that the said account had been opened and an account number was given.
Mr. Okupe said prior to these, the Director of Funds in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, M.K. DIKWA, through a letter reference FD/LP2008/37/C/I/DF,and dated November 8, communicated with the ExecutiveSecretary of the Nigeria Universities Commission, NUC,Julius Okojie, requesting for the list of federal universities in Nigeria for the purpose of opening a Special Account for them.

[B]Mr. Okupe said that on November 12, Mr. Okojie’s office, in a letter referenced NUC/ES/444/VOL15/280, responded to the request and gave the list of the universities with their various account numbers domiciled with the Central Bank.[/b]
“Following this, the Accountant General has communicated with the Executive Secretary requesting for the details of amount payable to each of the listed Universities which is currently being processed by the NUC,” Mr. Okupe said.

While speaking to Channels TV over the weekend, Mr.
Fagge had wondered why the government failed to make
the money available.

“Why won’t government make available this money so that we know the money is there and the universities
commence drawing from this money to address the
problem of decay in infrastructure, teaching and research
facilities? When that is done, our members will suspend the strike,” he said.

Mr. Okupe did not comment on the other major demands
by ASUU that non-victimization of lecturers that partook in the strike be included in the final agreement to be signed by the lecturers’ union and the federal government; and that the agreement be signed on behalf of the federal government by the chief law officer of the country, the Attorney General of the Federation.

He also did not comment on why a renegotiation of the
controversial 2009 agreement between both parties be
done in 2014, as reportedly agreed at a meeting with
President Goodluck Jonathan, was not contained in the
‘resolution’ of the meeting prepared by the government
and sent to ASUU.

The presidential aide did not entertain questions after the
media briefing.

The Federal Government, through the NUC, had given an ultimatum that all university lecturers resume by
December 9 or face sack.

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