The Calabar Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged the Federal Government to release the outstanding N1.1 billion meant for infrastructure upgrade in the nation’s universities, following an agreement in 2013.
The union expressed dismay that an agreement the union entered with the Federal Government in 2009 over a new salary structure for lecturers had neither been implemented nor reviewed by the government, 15 years after.
ASUU said it could be forced to embark on a strike, if its request was not addressed.
The Calabar zonal coordinator of the union, Happiness Uduk, told reporters yesterday in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, at the end of a meeting with branch chairmen that out of the N1.3 trillion agreed to be released over a period of six years, only N200 billion was released in 2013 without an additional release till date.
“You will recall that following ASUU’s outcry over the conditions of the universities in the country, the Federal Government, in 2013, finally set up its own NEEDS Assessment body to verify the claims of the union over the conditions of the nation’s universities.
“Accordingly, the government promised to release N1.3 trillion over a period of six years to address the decadence and dearth of facilities in public universities. In that year, N200 billion was released and it led to the massive infrastructural development that is visible in every public university in Nigeria today.
“It was expected that with the subsequent release of N220 billion per tranche annually for five years ending in 2018, there would be a satisfactory overhaul of basic facilities because these five tranches would have provided funding for functional libraries, laboratories with consumables and workshops, habitable students’ hostels, sports facilities, utility vehicles, office and classroom furniture, adequate lecture halls and staff offices.
