The Ministry of Education Nigeria on Monday agreed to renegotiate the controversial agreement it reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) in 2001. The Minister of Education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, who caved in to a sustained pressure by ASUU at a meeting in Abuja, said that the review of the agreement would commence on August 14. Ezekwesili also asked the ASUU leadership to return for another meeting on July 24, when she would have obtained some information from the University of Ilorin on the 49 lecturers who were sacked five years ago. ASUU had on Wednesday last week started a seven-day warning strike to compel the government to renegotiate and begin the implementation of the pact. When the meeting started on Monday, Ezekwesili, rather than discussing the government’s position on the controversial agreement, announced her intention to constitute a team to undertake a comprehensive review of the education sector. The minister therefore sought ASUU’s cooperation to ensure that the team achieved its purpose. She said, “We have a situation in the education sector that is deeper than can be imagined. We are going to constitute a task team to rescue the sector and you are very critical to the team. “We urge you to lay down your weapons because I have no intention to have you use them. We need all the assets of our minds to solve the problem of this sector in six months. “The task team will look at a crisis ridden sector because we are interested in the totality of the problems of the education sector. I want a systemic approach to solving the problems and the matter of opening up re-negotiation of the 2001 agreement is an important aspect of the task team.” But the ASUU President, Dr. Abdullahi Sule-Kano, responded to the minister’s speech by saying that they were not at the meeting to discuss whether a team would be set up or not. Sule-Kano said that the union was opposed to a situation where the re-negotiation of the 2001 agreement would be subsumed into the task team. He said, “If you want to look at the education sector systematically, we have no problem with that but what we are saying is separate it from the re-negotiation team. If you don’t separate the two, I don’t see the way forward.” The ASUU boss insisted that what university teachers needed was a firm commitment that the agreement would be reviewed and implemented. On the sacked lecturers, he said that UNILORIN should have complied with a federal high court ruling by reabsorbing the affected persons. He said that the union was disappointed that the university authorities chose to appeal the ruling without consulting the UNILORIN council. Ezekwesili, who said that judicial process should not be compromised, added that she would need to clarify issues from the university authorities. The controversial agreement included massive and phased injection of funds for capital projects; 26 per cent increase in the salaries of lecturers; urgent implementation of the authentic University Autonomy Act; and increased budgetary allocation to the education sector in consonance with the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s requirement. Though ASUU has persistently put the UNESCO-recommended figure at 26 per cent of the budget, the claim could not be confirmed by our correspondents’ independent investigation of UNESCO websites and documents. THE chairman, Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Universities, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) has condemned in totality the on-going strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), saying “there is justification for the union to go on strike, whether warning or total”.

Share on Facebook