By Muhammed Abubakar, Reporting
THE Federal Government says the N1.2 trillion revitalisation fund being demanded by the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) should no longer be an issue.
This is because the amount has successfully been liquidated over N2.5 trillion in tertiary education alone in the last 10 years.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu made the claim on Thursday, while anchoring the State House briefing on the reforms being made in the education sector in Nigeria so far.
He explained that the N2.5 trillion was in form of intervention to tertiary institutions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), in the last 10 years, saying this has exceeded the N1.2 trillion ASUU is demanding.
He further disclosed that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari alone has expended over N6 trillion in capital and recurrent expenditure in the education sector in the last seven years.
Stonix News reported that ASUU had, on February 14, 2022, embarked on a four-week total and comprehensive strike to press home their unresolved demands on the Federal Government.
This was further extended by another 12 weeks on May 9 to give the government enough time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues after an extension on March 14 due to an alleged lack of seriousness on the part of the Federal Government.
President Buhari had, on July 19, directed the Minister of Education, Adamu, to proffer a solution to the challenge and report back to him in two weeks.
However, ASUU remained adamant with its demand as it once again on August 1 extended its ongoing strike by another four weeks to give the Federal Government more time to resolve outstanding issues on the imbroglio.
Stonix News reports that other ASUU demands include: the signing of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Renegotiated Agreement, deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform, payment of outstanding arrears of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), release agreed sum of money for the revitalization of public universities (Federal and States), among others.
Speaking on Thursday, Adamu disclosed that the Federal Government has not accepted UTAS as a payment platform for universities as reported in the media.
The minister, however, said strikes were a huge distraction, doing no one any good, saying the thinking that only strikes could resolve matters was a wrong perception.
“The Buhari administration has invested in infrastructural development of the education sector more than any other administration in the history of this nation.
“It is on record that the tertiary education trust fund has invested an estimated N2.5 Trillion in tertiary education in the last ten years, thereby, exceeding the sum total of N1.2 trillion contained in the 2009 agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities and we are still counting,” he noted.
He said one of the greatest achievements it recorded in the education sector during the period under review, was the development and launching of the e-learning website for all levels of the educational system while directing all regulatory agencies in the sector to ensure that all educational Institutions under their supervision interface with the ICT Department of the ministry develop and deploy relevant content on the website.
He further said the ministry has invested heavily in the construction, renovation and rehabilitation of classrooms, hostels, laboratories, security and other infrastructural facilities at the basic and secondary levels.
“In the last seven years, a total of Five Hundred and Fifty-Three Billion, One Hundred and Thirty-Four Million, Nine Hundred and Sixty-Seven Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety-Eight Naira, Fifty Kobo (N553,134,967.498.50) has gone into infrastructural development at the basic and secondary levels,” he further noted.
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