French to be part of UTME from 2014 – Minister

Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’I, said on Thursday in Abuja that French language would be part of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination as from 2014 for interested candidates, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

Rufa’I said this at  a reception held in honour of the French Language Project Manager, Mr. Jean-Phillipe Roy.

She said that being multi-lingual in the 21st Century was essential as it helps individuals to operate more effectively in the international community.

“For Nigeria, the study of French language is quite key, considering the fact that our neighbouring countries are French-speaking. Apart from the English language, French language is one of the major international languages,” she said.

She said Roy came to Nigeria in 2009 under the second Bilateral Agreement between Nigeria and French.

The minister noted that the French had worked hard to ensure that various components of the project received due attention.

Rufa’i lauded his contributions to the reform of the UTME for 2014 in addition to the scholarships awarded to 16 teachers of French language to study in France for one month.

She said the project manager’s contributions included supply of books to schools, award of Master’s degree in French as a foreign language and supply of DVD and CD player to the project office.

The minister lauded the support of the French Government to the Nigerian French Language Village, Badagry, Lagos; and the Regional Network of French Language centres in Africa.

She also commended the Association of French Language Teachers, and noted  the proposed handing over of the project vehicle to the ministry for the monitoring of the teaching and learning of the language.

“Nigeria and France have come a long way in their relationship. It is a relationship built on mutual respect, cooperation and interest. I wish to assure you that the ministry will continue to be committed to the teaching and learning of French Language in Nigeria and sustenance of the cordial relationship,’’ she said.

Roy praised the collaboration between the Federal Government and the French Government.

“Since I have been here, you have shown a lot of interest in what we have been trying to do in terms of decision-making in critical issues and, with your help, we have been able to keep the project on the right track,” he said.

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FG Directs Striking ASUU University Lecturers To Return To Work

The directive which was given by the secretary to the government of the federation, Sen Anyim Pius Anyim, during a meeting between the federal government and the vice-chancellors of the 61 public universities, stated that "Government, hereby, urges every staff of the nation's universities to return to work as all issues are being resolved."
He said with particular reference to the contentious issue of earned allowances, every staff of the universities that is so entitled should verify his claim with the university council and accordingly get paid as "from the foregoing, it is obvious that government has demonstrated sufficient commitment to the implementation of the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement.
"After series of discussions, government has now provided N30 billion to support the university councils in settling the earned allowances. The amount will be disbursed to the various university councils which are in the position to know who is entitled to how much after verification."
He revealed that "Traditionally, universities pay this to deserving staff but because of the amount which ASUU now claims as arrears, government has decided to assist the university councils to pay" as government did not receive any computation of amount involved until February, 2013.
"By this computation, ASUU is claiming N92 billion as arrears for three year's payment based on percentage rage of between 15 and 20 per cent of personnel cost."
While there was consensus that revitalising the tertiary institutions is of critical importance to the nation, Anyim noted that "when put together, the amount of funds from the budgetary and non-budgetary sources that goes into the sector is quite huge but without corresponding impact.
While acknowledging the contributions of the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, Senior Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, and other stakeholders, Anyim reiterated the government's resolve 'to bringing the students back to school and appreciated the patience of parents and students as government is making every effort to revitalise the university system."
It would be recalled that on July 2, 2013, ASUU declared what it called "total and indefinite strike" over issues it says has remained unresolved pertaining to an agreement it reached with government in 2009.
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FG not ready to end strike – ASUU

LAGOS— After 10 unsuccessful meetings with the Federal Government, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, yesterday said government was not ready to end the 8-week-old strike, lamenting that government displayed dishonesty and lack of integrity during negotiations.

At a briefing in Lagos, ASUU’s President, Dr. Isa Faggae, claimed that government had declared it would not implement the agreed injection of funds to revitalise the public universities, but was only making a dubious statement of supporting some universities with N100 billion.

He said: “Government had also declared that it will not pay university academics their earned allowances which accumulated from 2009 to 2013. Rather, it is talking about providing N30 billion to assist various Governing Councils of Federal Universities to defray the arrears of N92 billion owed to all categories of staff in the university system.”

Narrating the union’s experience at the last meeting with the Government held on Monday, Faggae said: ASUU was shocked by the level of deceit, dishonesty, and lack of integrity displayed by the Government. Never in the history of ASUU-Government relations have we, as a union, ever experienced the kind of volte-face exhibited by Government. At one stage in the interaction, the Secretary to the Government Federation ridiculed the agreement, the MoU and the Needs Assessment Report, mocking the Minister of Education to “go and give them N400 billion,” at which members of the government scornfully laughed.”

He argued that the Governor Gabriel Suswam-led Implementation Committee was being used as smokescreen to “deceive ASUU, Nigerian students and their parents, as well as other unsuspecting members of the public on the purportedly released N100 billion for the implementation of the Needs Assessment Report.

First, he said, government plans to divert the regular yearly allocations to universities by Tertiary Education Trust, TETFund, to make at least 70% of the N100 billion. This is unacceptable to ASUU. It is like robbing Peter to pay Paul, since the idea of revitalization took full cognizance of the intervention role TETFund ab-initio.

“Again, contrary to subsisting operational procedures, about 75% of the money meant for revitalizing universities would not be released to them as the Suswam Committee plans to hand over construction of the hostel projects to the Federal Ministry of Education and/or the National Universities Commission, for implementation. This is illegal; neither the ministry nor NUC is backed by laws of Nigerian Public Universities to divert monies meant for the development of these institutions into centrally executed projects.”

Dr. Faggae questioned the committee’s motives for proposing to commit N1.6 million to a bed space, instead of N200, 000 to N400, 000, saying, “We see a continuation of outrageous contract regimes in the plan to centrally coordinate the construction of student hostels as done in the case of the 12 newly established Federal Universities with TETFund resources. The NUC has transmuted itself into a “Tenders’ board” which awarded contracts for the construction of 560 bed spaces hostel for each university at a whooping sum of 1.2 bn. This contract sum translates into N2.143 million per bed space.”

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ASUU strike: FG to meet varsity councils, VCs

The Federal Government  will before Sunday meet with  university councils and vice-chancellors   to  update  them on some of the decisions it had reached in its bid to end the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

The Chairman of the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy Assessment Implementation Committee of the universities, Governor Gabriel Suswam, made this known on Tuesday  after President Goodluck Jonathan met behind closed doors  with key officials of his administration  over  the almost two months’ old strike.

 The officials  included Vice-President Namadi Sambo; the  Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim; the Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Mike Oghiadome;  the  Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufa’i; and  the  Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka Wogu.

ASUU, however, said shortly after the meeting ended  that the strike  would not be called off because the Federal Government was not sincere in its efforts  to end the dispute.

It was learnt that the Tuesday  meeting afforded the  government officials  taking part in  the negotiations with the striking university teachers the opportunity to brief the President on the latest  development.

Suswam, who is  also the governor of Benue State,  told State House correspondents after  the meeting that substantial progress had been made in the negotiations.

 He  expressed the hope that the strike would be called off  soon based on some of the mechanisms that had  been put in place to move university   education    forward.

The governor said while the issues surrounding the NEEDS assessment had been concluded to some extent, those bordering on the earned allowance component being handled by the SGF were pending.

Suswam  said, “As you must have heard, the Federal Government  made an offer of N30bn to assist the various councils of our universities to be able to pay the earned allowances.

“There is also N100bn and that is why  the Minister of Finance, the SGF, the   ministers of education and  labour as well as the Chief of Staff, the VP and myself  have just risen from a meeting to take some decisions that would end the strike  soon. The President has instructed us on    what to do and he has shown a lot of commitments  by starting  a project worth about N100bn  in all the universities in about 61 universities in  the country.

“So we are hoping that we will be able to see the end of the strike very soon if at the end of the day,  ASUU  is satisfied with the measures that  we have so far  taken .

“The Federal Government will also be meeting with the university councils and vice-chancellors of our universities within the week towards updating them on some of the decisions taken.”

The governor added that    the meeting with the varsity councils was necessary  because earned allowances had  to be certified by the management and councils of the universities.

He said since the Federal Government had offered to assist the councils with N30bn, it was important for them to go and verify  and pay the people who are  actually  entitled to the allowances.

“I think that the government had demonstrated some substantial faith . Yes, if ASUU said that this is the amount of money that the Federal Government  is owing them and the  government  has shifted ground from its initial posture, it means we are moving forward. With a N100bn available now for addressing the physical infrastructure deficit in our universities, I think the Federal Government has done quite well to have moved to where we are today,” he  added.

But ASUU has said  after the meeting which held in Jonathan’s office in the Presidential Villa, that the  Federal Government  was only using propaganda to curry public support rather than facing the issues raised by it.

A member of the National Executive Council of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Adesola, told one of our correspondents on the telephone  that theN30bn offered  to the striking lecturers  as earned allowances   was even worse than “where we were before the deadlocked  meeting  on Monday.”

The government, he said, had not shown enough commitment towards the settlement of the conflict.

According to him, the government only offered N30bn without saying anything on when the balance of the earned allowances would be paid.

He  also said that the declaration  by the government that it had  approved   N100bn  for  the development of infrastructure in the universities was  a mere propaganda.

 Meanwhile, the  All Progressives Congress  has  asked the government to honour its agreement with  ASUU in order  to end the  strike which began on July 1.

 The APC,  in   a statement on Tuesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said ASUU’s demand for N87bn was not open to government’s negotiation.

The statement reads, ‘’The N87bn that ASUU is demanding represents earned allowances hence cannot be renegotiated.

“In any  case, this amount pales into insignificance when placed side by side  the N1tr  that has been spent on federal legislators in the past eight years; or the frivolity involved in a government minister travelling to China to negotiate  a $1bn loan in a chartered jet (with its attendant costs) and with a retinue of officials  who earned generous estacode in hard currency.”

It said ASUU was not making any fresh demand beyond the agreement it reached with the government in 2009.

“Agreements are meant to be honoured, and breaching them comes with some consequences,” the statement added.

The  party said while the Federal Government refused to honour its own side of the agreement with ASUU since 2009, “it could pay out N3tn  in non-existent fuel subsidies to fat cats”.

It added that in place of ASUU strike, the Federal Government preferred to spend N1tn annually “to maintain the jets in the Presidential fleet and do little or nothing to prevent the  stealing of 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day.”

It condemned the  “non-chalance” of those who should be working round the clock to resolve the crisis, especially the Minister of State for Education, Nyeson Wike.

The APC claimed that instead of focusing on the problem, Wike “was launching vigilance groups and dancing ‘palongo’ around town when the nation’s public universities are shut and students are languishing.”

Reacting, Wike’s Special Assistant on Media, Simeon Nwakaudu, said “no administration has impacted on education like the Jonathan administration.”

He said Wike had actively participated in the process of resolving the ASUU crisis, with the Federal Government team led by the SGF.

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