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No resumption without meeting our demands, ASUU tells FG

Published

3 years ago

April 12, 2022

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Abuja zone says there will be no resumption in public universities until the renegotiated 2009 agreement is signed, implemented and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution deployed.

The ASUU zonal coordinator, Dr Salawu Lawal, made this known during a press conference at the University of Abuja in Gwagwalada on Monday.

According to him, members are ready to return to their duty posts as soon as their demands are met by the Federal Government.

He said, “You would recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities declared a four-week rolling strike at the University of Lagos National Executive Council meeting held on February 14.

“Owing to the failure of the Federal Government to act within that period, the national action was rolled over for another eight weeks following the resolution taken at an emergency NEC meeting at the Festus Iyayi National Secretariat on March 14.

“The action, as you are probably aware is to, among other things, compel the Federal Government to sign and implement the draft renegotiated 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement submitted to it by the Prof. Munzali Committee in May 2021.

“Deploy for use in the Nigerian university system, was the home-grown payment and personnel solution called UTAS developed by ASUU as replacement for the failed IPPIS.

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“As usual, the Federal Government has ignored ASUU’s call for full implementation of that famous agreement and other memoranda signed with the union.

“No meeting has been held between the two parties since the commencement of the ongoing strike. The only exception is our union’s re-submission of UTAS for a retest.

“The summary is that unless and until the renegotiated 2009 agreement is signed and implemented and UTAS deployed, there will be no work in public universities.”

ASUU, Benin Zone, also on Monday pleaded with Nigerians to join the union in rescuing what it described as dying university system. The union’s Zonal Coordinator, Prof Fred Esumeh, in a press briefing at the ASUU Secretariat, University of Benin, Edo State, said the union called on well-meaning Nigerians to rise up and join it in repositioning the nation’s universities to a globally competitive level that would be able to produce the manpower required to jump-start the re-emergence of a country driven by technology.

He said, “We call on all well-meaning Nigerians, students, workers, civil society organisations to wake up and join ASUU to rescue the dying university system.

“It will help reposition the universities to be globally competitive and able to produce the manpower required to jump-start the re-emergence of the country.”

Also on Monday in Ibadan, ASUU flayed the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, over what it described as a reckless comment that the union is “mean and wicked for shutting down universities.”

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ASUU chairman in the University of Ibadan, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, in a statement said lecturers in Nigeria had sacrificed their labour, sweat and health “only for parasites in government to come and destroy common heritage and collective patrimony.”

Akinwole said, “The Minister of State for Education represents one of the deceptive and insincere characters of the Buhari administration.

“It is a sign of acceptance of failure for a minister to admit that they have consistently been irresponsible by pleading with a union to bury the welfare of its members and not fight for infrastructure face-lift for the children of the masses and new salary for the welfare of her members.”

The ASUU boss, who challenged the minister to make public his salaries and allowances, also asked him to tell Nigerians how much he is being owed by government since he became minister.

Akinwole said lecturers have been considerate of the plight of the students and the society and this is why it has taken the union members’ show understanding with government owing her members 12 years of earned academic allowances and 13 years on old salary when the likes of ministers and cabinet members in the government enjoy periodic review of allowances and salaries.

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Related Topics:ASUU demands FG resumption

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BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

Published

6 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

The federal government has unveiled a proposed budget of N47.9 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year.

Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu.

Bagudu revealed that the council had approved the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2025-2027.

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According to the minister, the government has pegged the crude oil benchmark at $75 per barrel, with an oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day (bpd).

The budget also sets the exchange rate at N1,400 per dollar and aims for a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.4%.

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

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EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

Published

6 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) told FIJ that they have arrested Timber Wabote, the former executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCMB), on the grounds of a failed $35 million Bayelsa refinery project fraud.

Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s spokesperson, confirmed this to FIJ on Thursday.

“It is true,” Oyewale responded to FIJ’s inquiries.

Wabote is accused of misappropriating public funds for a refinery project that should have improved local energy production.

Vanguard reported that the NCDMB under Wabote paid $35 million to support the development of energy infrastructure in the Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa, yet there was nothing to show for it.

The EFCC picked Wabote up following the arrest of Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, the Managing Director of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, for alleged misappropriation, money laundering and diversion of $35 million in public funds.

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“NCDMB under the watch of Wabote allegedly paid the $35 million to Akindele to build a 2,000 barrel per day (BPD), refinery, jetty, gas plant, power plant, data centre and tank farm at Brass free trade zone (FTZ), Okpoama Community in Brass LGA of Bayelsa State,” a source with the EFCC had explained.

Since December 2020 when the payments were made, Akindele abandoned the project with little or nothing to show for the huge sum he received.

Preliminary investigations showed that Wabote’s NCDMB financed 17 different projects, including the 2,000 BPD refinery in Brass LGA.

There has been a series of public fund misappropriation cases in the energy sector in recent times.

FIJ earlier reported that members of the House of Representatives summoned three ministers to defend how over $2 billion was spent on renewable energy with not much to show for it.

A recent FIJ report also recently detailed how residents of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, have not had power in their homes since July due to the vandalisation of the Ahoada-Yenagoa transmission towers caused by unidentified persons.

The Bayelsa state government told FIJ it was the federal government’s responsibility to provide electricity for residents. The state has no renewable energy options reliable enough to power its capital despite the multi-million-dollar NCMB energy project.

Transparency in the energy sector has become necessary at a time when Nigerians have suffered power instability due to frequent grid collapses.

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

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Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

Published

7 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

Yahaya Bello

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has requested an adjournment in the new case against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, stating that the 30-day window for the previously issued summons is still active.

The commission has granted administrative bail to his co-defendants, Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, and asked the court for an extension of time for Bello to appear.

At the resumed hearing before Justice Maryann Anenih of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, EFCC Counsel Jamiu Agoro noted that the court’s order from October 3rd had not yet expired.

“In that wise, we feel it will not be appropriate for us to take proceedings while that 30 days is still running. So we have discussed and agreed to come back on the 27th day of November, 2024, my lord,” he told the court.

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He also mentioned that the previously set date of November 20th was not convenient for the prosecution counsels.

Counsel to the second defendant, Aliyu Saiki, SAN, confirmed that his client had been granted administrative bail by the prosecution and had no objection to the adjournment request. The third defendant’s counsel, ZE Abass, concurred.

The prosecution counsel also requested the court to allow the notice of hearing to be pasted on the last known address of the first defendant.

After hearing from all counsels, the judge granted the EFCC’s application for adjournment and the issuance of the hearing notice.

“I have considered the application for adjournment by the complainant and issuance of hearing notice and the submission by the second and third defendants. The application is granted,” she said.

Justice Anenih then adjourned the case to November 27th for arraignment.

The former governor, alongside Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, are being prosecuted as 1st to 3rd defendants, respectively, in a fresh 16-count charge instituted against them by the EFCC.