The arrest of the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris by the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on Monday triggered public outrage on the endemic corruption going on in the current administration.
According to the anti-graft agency, Ahmed Idris was arrested for allegations bordering on diversion of funds and money laundering worth N80 billion, Business Metrics earlier reported.
Part of the reactions that followed the development is that of a former special assistant to erstwhile president, Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, who linked the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to the arrest of Mr. Idris.
According to him, the aggrieved university workers have no reason to terminate their three-month old strike, urging them to insist that the N80 billion allegedly siphoned by the AGF be diverted to pay meet their demands by the federal government.
However, he made assertion that the money ASUU is demanding from the federal government, which is responsible for putting Nigerian universities under locks, is not even up to what Idris has siphoned.
“Dear ASUU, If the Accountant General of the Federation can steal N80 billion, you have no reason to end your strike. Ask Buhari to use the stolen N80 billion to pay you and keep the change. After all, the money ASUU is asking for is not even up to N80 billion,” Omokri said in a tweet that has since gone viral.
Is N80 Billion Truly What ASUU is Demanding?
Independent checks by Business Metrics into Reno Omokri’s assertaion shows that ASUU is demanding more than N80 billion from the federal government.
The president of the ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Sodeke had on different occasions outlined the monetary demands of the union which are dated as far back as 2009.
At the genesis in 2009, the FG agreed to paying ASUU a sum of N1.3 trillion aside outstanding earned allowances and so far, only N220 billion has been paid, leaving a deficit of N1.08 trillion.
We have below the funding list for revitalisation of tertiary institutions as demanded by ASUU:
- This dates back to the 2009 and 2013 agreements. The Federal Government agreed to inject a total of N1.3 trillion into public universities, both state and federal, in six tranches, starting from 2013, after the union decried the deplorable state of the institutions.
- In 2013, the government was to release N200 billion, and for the five subsequent years, the government was to release N220 billion each year.
- After releasing the first tranche, the government stopped releasing the funds. In 2017, the government released N20 billion. In 2020, it promised to release N25 billion.
Payment of outstanding earned academic allowances (EAA)
In 2009, the Federal Government agreed to pay lecturers EAA, but the issue has lingered for years over the failure to implement it.
The government finally agreed to pay the first tranche of the backlog of allowances in November 2019 and the second instalment by August 2020.
But nothing was paid. The union also demanded mainstreaming payments of EAA into the annual budgets, beginning from the 2019 budget.
Withheld salaries and non-remittance of check-off dues of unions
Another lingering issue is the release of withheld salaries and non-remittance of check-off dues of unions, which were all contained on December 22, 2020 Memorandum of Action.
ASUU accused the Federal Government of deducting check-off dues on behalf of the union and refused to remit same between February and June 2020.
Consequently, the funding list above is an indication that Mr. Omokri’s position on the matter is not well-informed as his suggested N80 billion solution cannot go far in meeting ASUU’s monetary demands.
Those are money-related demands made by the academic union. Other demands not related to money are:
- Renegotiation of 2009 agreements
- Review of NUC 2004 Act to tackle the proliferation of universities
- Implementation of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
- Constitution of visitation panels
As part of efforts to end the lingering strike, the federal government had constituted a seven-man committee led by Prof. Emeritus Nimi Briggs to renegotiate the 2009 agreement.
In addition, President Muhammadu Buhari has directed National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to conduct an integrity test on the home-made payment platform, UTAS, presented by ASUU as an alternative to IPPIS of the federal government.
