ASUU STRIKE: Govt Gives Ultimatum Week one ASUU to Suspend strike or face sack.

The Federal Government has Given the Striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) till next Wednesday (December 4, 2013) to Suspend ITS Five-month old strike or face sack. Supervising minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, Said Today this in Abuja and Directed All Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities to the Open Universities for Academic Activities to Resume and Provide Enabling Environment for staff That Resume for work . He Also Directed That the VCs Should Place adverts for both internal and external Vacancies in Their Universities.

Protesting students threaten nation-wide riots

MOTORISTS plying Asaba-Benin highway were stranded as protesting students blocked the road by the Asaba-end of the bridge, thus causing a gridlock that lasted several hours, Wednesday,  morning.
The scene was similar to the protest staged by physically- challenged persons sometime ago on the same stretch of the highway.
National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, Coordinator in the South-South and South-East, Comrade Chinonso Obasi, expressed worry that the students are feeling the brunt of the strike following the failure of the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to fully reconcile their differences.
He said: “We are appealing to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, that since the Federal Government has been able to release N100 billion for infrastructural development and N30 billion for allowance, they should go back to classroom and continue their negotiation or agitation. This is our prayer and wish.
“We are giving them one week to open the schools or be ready to face corrosive consequences in form of nation-wide demonstrations and riots. We are ready to mobilise for that and it will be operation occupy Nigeria.”

Okonjo-Iweala: No money to meet ASUU’s demands

There ap-pears to be no end in sight to the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, in the country as Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala declared, yesterday, that the nation’s economy cannot accommodate the demands of the lecturers for now.
The minister spoke while delivering her keynote address at the opening ceremony of this year’s National Council on Finance and Economic Development, NACOFED, in Minna, Niger State, yesterday.
She said that if other sectors were to be adequately and urgently developed, less emphasis should be placed on recurrent expenditure, especially salaries and allowances of workers.
According to her, “at present, ASUU wants government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances over and above their salaries. Though we are in discussion with them, the problem is that the resources to take care of the demands are simply not there.”
She said that with the present situation in the country, Nigerians need to make a choice.
She said: “People are supportive when there is agitation to increase salaries, pensions among others.
“But on the other hand, people also turn around to say the recurrent budget is too high and there is no way you can have it both ways and so we have to make specific choices in this country.”
Cause
Okonjo-Iweala noted that the country was still suffering from the impact of the wage increase in 2010, adding that by the time other demands are added, the recurrent budget will be getting higher, thus leaving virtually nothing for capital.
She said: “Do we want to get to a stage when virtually all the monies and resources we earn are being used to pay salaries and allowances for public servants, who make up a minute percentage of the country’s population?
“If we do, it means that government workers will take up the entire budget of the country with nothing left for roads, water, education and others.”
She, therefore, challenged the commissioners and other stakeholders to use the conference to find permanent solutions to the lingering financial problems in order to move the nation forward.