FG Offers ASUU N30bn, Asks Lecturers To Make Sacrifices And Resume Work

An end may be in sight for the lingering strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, as the Federal Government is said to be offering N30 billion as earned allowances to the striking university lecturers.

According to a top official of the Federal Ministry of Education, due to the dwindling revenue base of the government, it was ready to offer N30 billion to the striking lecturers to end the strike.

The official believes government’s position is a sincere approach in ending the strike amid dwindling revenue profile occasioned by oil theft and macro-economic measures aimed at diversifying the economy.

All the demands of the striking lecturers had been resolved except one, the issue of ‘earned allowances’, which they have put at N87 billion.

The N30 billion, which the federal government was offering, according to the source, was in the conviction that considering the nation’s current revenue base, ASUU would make some sacrifices and go back to work in the interest of the students and the country at large.

The source added that the government was desirous of a holistic and sustainable solution to the problems bedeviling the entire education sector, with a focus on infrastructure development, which the federal government had set up the Governor Gabriel Suswam-led University Needs Implementation Committee to handle.

The NEEDS Implementation Committee had announced on Tuesday, that N100 billion would be made available to universities for infrastructure development.