LATEST ON ASUU STRIKE: We Can’t Meet Union’s N92bn Demand – FG

THE Federal Government on Tuesday said it
did not have the resources tomeet the N92bn
financial demand by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities.
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
at the opening of a two-day meeting of
Commissioners of Finance and Accountants-
General of states, said the N92bn being
demanded by the university lecturers was
not withinthe reach of the Federal
Government.
She said, "At present, ASUU wants the Federal
Government to pay N92bn in extra
allowances, when the resources are not there,
and when we are working to integrate past
increases in pensions. We need to make
choices in this country as we are getting to
the stage where recurrent expenditures take
the bulk of our resources and people get paid
but can do no work.
"Since I assumed office, the share of
recurrent expenditure in our total budgets
had increased astronomically. In fact,
recurrent expenditure accounted for about
77.2 per cent of the federal budget and we
are now working to re-balance this ratio."
The minister added, "The country is still
suffering from the effect of the 2010
increase in salary. Do we want to get to a
stage in this country that all the money we
earn is used to pay salaries and allowances?"
The theme of the meeting is 'Restructuring
Nigeria's Finances.'
She said, "If the demands of the university
lecturers are met and we continue to pay
them salaries and allowances, we will not be
able to provide infrastructure in the
universities."
The minister also lamented that Nigeria's
over-dependence on oil had resulted in
deterioration of the nation's non-oil tax.
She said that non-oil taxes accounted for 74
per cent of Nigeria's Government revenues in
1970 but by 2012, it had declined to only 30
per cent.
She said many states and local governments
were also dependent on monthly revenue
allocation from the central government. "On
the average only 11 percent of sub-national
revenue was obtained from internally-gene
rated sources," she added.
Meanwhile, the negotiation between the
Federal Government and striking members of
the ASUU ended in a deadlock as both parties
rescheduled the meeting to Monday next
week.
The Chief Mediator on behalf of Federal
Government and Governor of Benue State, Dr.
Gabriel Suswam, who spoke with journalists
on Tuesday after a marathon meeting, said
"tremendous progress" has been made in the
negotiations, particularly on the NEEDs
Assessment and Earned Allowance issues
raised by ASUU.
Suswam, who also serves as chairman of the
Universities Needs Assessment Committee,
expressed optimism that the issues would
soon be resolved going by the progress
made so far.