There seems to be
no end in sight to the ongoing university lecturers’ strike, with the
Federal Government saying yesterday that the 2009 agreement it signed
with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) cannot be
implemented.
The union went on strike early in the month
over what it called the failure of the government to fully implement the
agreement. It vowed not to go back to work, until the government
implements the agreement. The government said the complexity of the
agreement had been responsible for the continued breakdown of
negotiations between the two parties.
Labour Minister Emeka Wogu
stated this while briefing the leadership of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) on the activities of his ministry. It was at the party’s
national secretariat in Abuja. Wogu, however, said the government had
entered into another round of talks with the varsity teachers, making
some undisclosed offers to the teachers.
“We have made offer to
ASUU. It is as complex as presented. Negotiation is ongoing. The
National Assembly is equally involved. We believe they will soon call
off the strike. I personally and passionately appeal to them to call off
the strike. “It will not affect the negotiation, if they call off the
strike. It is better for them to be inside than outside. Students have
equally appealed to them.”
The minister added: “I inherited an
agreement signed by the Federal Government with ASUU and that agreement
is practically impossible for any administration to implement. We are
still discussing with them. If I leave here, I am going to the Office of
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) where we are
meeting with them. I hope that very soon, we will resolve it.”
Wogu
expressed the government’s reservations about the agreement it earlier
signed with ASUU, which has necessitated the setting up of yet another
negotiation team, headed by the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim. The nine-point agreement the
government entered into with ASUU include: funding requirements for the
revitalisation of Nigerian universities; Federal Government’s
assistance to state universities; establishment of NUPEMCO; and
progressive increase in annual budgetary allocation to the education
sector to 26 per cent between 2009 and 2020.
Other components of
the agreement are: payment of earned allowances; amendment to the
pension/retirement age of academics non professorial cadre from 65 to 70
years; and reinstatement of prematurely dissolved Governing Councils.
Also included in the agreement are: transfer of Federal Government’s
landed property to the universities and setting up of research
development councils and provision of research equipment to laboratories
and classrooms in the nation’s universities.
On job creation
efforts of the government, Wogu told the PDP leadership that the
Community Service Scheme Women and Youth Empowerment Programme of the
Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) of the Federal
Government had already engaged 120,000 persons out of the 185,000
targeted for employment this year. He said since social security is an
evolving structure, Nigeria is still basically trying to grow the
concept to an acceptable international standard. “We are at the stage of
putting in place a social security policy that would reflect the
nation’s needs and level of economic development, taking into
consideration the traditional as well as the modern socio-cultural
values and norms,” he said.
With the passing of the Employee
Compensation Act in 2010, he said the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust
Fund was resuscitated and currently functioning, adding that it has the
new mandate to provide social security services to the disadvantaged and
vulnerable members of the society. Wogu said the National Directorate
of Employment (NDE) was in the fore-front of job creation, especially in
skills acquisition and empowerment of unemployed people.
Nokia has a new app designed to help Lumia users post their videos to
YouTube. But for now it seems limited to just the new Lumia 1020.
After controlling for physical fitness and many other health and
behavioral factors, they found that the higher the resting heart rate,
the greater the risk for death. Compared with men with rates of 50 beats
a minute or less, those at 71 to 80 beats had a 51 percent greater
risk. At 81 to 90 beats, the rate of death was doubled, and over 90 it
was tripled.
Congratulation! i has worked so he deserves it!
The first daughter of masked Afrobeat musician, Abisade Ologunde
(Lagbaja) Moyosade Ologunde, married her best friend, Olamide Obilana,
in Opebi a few weeks ago.
