The Court of Appeal recently issued a decision on the ASUU’s motion for authorisation to appeal the National Industrial Court’s decision.
However, the federal government has allotted an amount of 470,000,000,000 Naira in the 2023 budget for university revitalization, which is one of ASUU’s requests.
The President also renewed his appeal to university lecturers to show better appreciation to the country’s current economic situation and return to the classroom.
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President Buhari also said universities must find means of funding instead of solely relying on the budget of the government.
“What the federal government has said is significant. Government has said some of these demands can be met in the budget.
“I believe that given that this administration had even paid a little out of this 1.2 trillion before Jonathan administration also made some payment we are getting closer, closer and closer.
“I don’t even expect that all of the 1.2 trillion should be paid at once.
“You want to see infrastructure development, that would take time.
“Constant freshening up of infrastructure in universities would take even up to ten years”.
These were the submissions of Babajide Kolade-Otitoju on Friday on Journalists’ Hangout.
According to Babajide, the federal government should be given the benefit of the doubt if it keeps its word and releases the funds promised to pay ASUU in the first quarter.
He continued by saying that the federal government had not conducted itself appropriately in the past, which was why ASUU had lost trust in it.
“If you enter into a memorandum of action with people and they decide to cease their strike as a result, and all of those issues several months after you have not addressed even one, then you are telling them that you can’t be trusted.
“The same thing was done to the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA and they decided to go on strike.
N470,000,000,000 is a good step in the right direction since it demonstrates that the government also listens, according to Babajide Kolade-Otitoju.
He expressed his expectation that issues would be addressed in upcoming budgets until the money is paid.
According to Babajide Kolade-Otitoju, 470,000,000,000 is a good step in the right direction as it shows that the government also listens.
He said it was his hope that this would be taken care of in future budgets until the sum is cleared.
“I believe that President Buhari made the right decisions by earmarking this kind of funding in the implementation and release of his most recent budget, since funding is also crucial.”
He reiterated that government makes promises and then finds it difficult to release funds.
“These are the things ASUU don’t want, they want to see concrete guarantees.
“There are still more demands, and the government must find a way to meet them, but I will encourage ASUU to embrace this as a token of government’s good intentions, because government is a continuous process.”
ASUU, which is asking N1.2 trillion, had already rejected the federal government’s offering of N150 billion for the first quarter of 2023.
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