ASUU: Inside The Needs Assessment Committee

On July 4, 2013 the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on a nation-wide
strike to press for the implementation of the
2009 Agreement signed with the Federal Government.
One of the critical issues in the Agreement is the urgent need to provide critical infrastructure on the university campuses or
rehabilitate existing facilities in deplorable state of decay.
In order to tackle the problem of gross infrastructural deficit on the campuses in a systematic manner, the Federal Government
set up a Needs Assessment Committee made up of Federal Government officials drawn from
relevant agencies, representatives of the Governing Councils of the universities and ASUU.
The Committee toured all the federal and state universities in the country to obtain first hand,
the status of infrastructure on the campuses
with the view to ascertaining the quantity and
quality of facilities required on each of the
campuses that would make learning, teaching
and research more conducive for both the
students and lecturers.
A comprehensive report made from this
exercise and a technical report drawn from the
main report was presented to the National
Council on Education, the highest policy
making body on education matters in the
country for ratification. The report was also
presented to the Federal Executive Council and
the National Economic Council which variously
approved the report. Having received the
necessary approvals, the stage was set for its
implementation hence the setting up of the
Needs Assessment Implementation Committee
for the Nigerian Public Universities.
The Committee headed by Benue State
Governor, Dr Gabriel Torwua Suswam held its
inaugural meeting on August 1, 2013 after its
earlier inauguration by President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan. It has as members a Senator
representing the Senate Committee on
Education, Honourable Member representing
the House of Representatives Committee on
Education, the Ministers of Education, Labour
and Productivity, Group Managing Director of
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC), Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), Executive Secretaries of the
Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFund) and
Petroleum Technology Development Fund
(PTDF), Chief Executives of the National
Communications Commission(NCC), National
Universities Commission(NUC) and
representative of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation(SGF). Other
members of the Committee include the
representatives of ASUU, Non-Academic Staff
Union of Universities (NASU) and Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).
Since its inauguration, the Committee took up
its assignment with vigour and commitment
leading to the successful mobilization of
N100billion for injection into the university
system in the area of provision of
infrastructure.
But achieving this feat within a few weeks was
not an easy task. Governor Suswam, the Chair
of the Committee deployed his immense
experience in handling labour matters in his
state as well as his lobbying skills  as a former
Legislators and his understanding of
bureaucratic processes as governor of Benue
state to bear on the assignment while
harnessing every useful idea from Committee
members for the desired result.
The first strategy deployed was to pool all
contributions of the Federal agencies to the
provision of infrastructure to universities
which was hitherto done in haphazard or
uncoordinated manner. This strategy saw the
NNPC, CBN, PTDF, NCC, and TeTFund all bring
huge sums of money which amounted to the
N100billion raised for the first phase of
intervention in the provision of critical
infrastructure on the university campuses.
The next critical step in the committee’s
assignment was how to distribute the
N100billion to the state and federal
universities in line with the Needs Assessment
Report. To this end, a technical sub-committee
was set up with representatives of ASUU to
work out a formula for disbursement for the
funds. The sub-committee benefitted
immensely from the expertise of the ASUU
representative, Dr Baffa, in the adoption of
technical criteria as students population to
determine how much funding would go to a
particular university. The sub-committee
relying on figures contained in the Needs
Assessment report categorized the universities
into three. The first category was those with
students population of 30,000 and above, the
second category had universities with students
enrolment of between 25,000 and 29,000, the
third category comprised universities with
students size of between 15,000 and 19,000
while the fourth category had universities with
students population of between 5,000 and
14,000.
The Technical Sub-Committee report was
presented to the main committee for adoption.
It was at this point ASUU wrote to the
Committee announcing its intention to
discontinue participation from meetings of the
committee.
The Committee nevertheless, adopted the
report of its Technical Sub-committee and
approved disbursement of various sums out
of the N100billion to the 59 benefiting
universities.
From the template approved by the Committee,
the University of Ibadan has received
N3.25billion; Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
and the University of Benin have received
N3.2billion; while Bayero University Kano,
Universities of Ilorin, Jos, Lagos, Maiduguri
and Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka have
received N3.05bilion each from the Fund. The
other public universities also received various
sums of money from the N100billion
intervention package.
The funds were disbursed directly to the Vice
Chancellors and Chairmen of the Governing
Councils of the universities at a meeting held
on 23rd August, 2013. The management of the
various universities and their Councils were
directed to quickly complete the procurement
processes and get the projects started. The
Committee further directed that both the
renovation works and new projects initiated
should be completed within 12 months. The
disbursed funds are to be committed to the
construction of new hostels of various sizes,
renovation of existing hostels, building of new
lecture theatres, classrooms, laboratories and
libraries in accordance with the priority needs
of the universities as already captured in the
Needs Assessment Report.
It is important to emphasize that the
Presidential Implementation Committee headed
by Governor Suswam has nothing to do with
the award of contracts under this programme
as the Governing Councils of the universities
have the overall control of the funds disbursed
to their respective institutions.
At this point it is pertinent to return to the
concerns raised by ASUU on basis of which it
opted out of the committee.
After a careful analysis of the situation, ASUU’s
action was premature and not based on the
realities of the situation since the issues raised
in its letter of August 20, 2013 either did not
arise or were adequately addressed in
subsequent meetings of the Committee. For
instance, the Federal government disbursed
the N100b directly to the universities and
assured that the Due Process Office would be
contacted to fast track the procurement
processes of projects under this programme.
Besides, the Committee disbursed every kobo
of the N100b to the 59 universities. This also
addressed the fears of “pinching and pilfering”
raised by ASUU in its letter earlier referred to.
Also, the disbursement of the N100b was
based on the criterion of population of
students as proposed by ASUU while the choice
of projects in each university was in line with
the Needs Assessment Report.
The other issue worthy of further elucidation is
the quantum of funds to be injected into the
system for provision of infrastructure. In
ASUU’s view, the 2009 agreement provided for
N100b capital injection to stimulate the
process of infrastructure on the campuses.
This was to be followed by a progressive
increase on an annual basis up to the tune of
N400b by 2014. The Federal Government
unfortunately could not commence this aspect
of the agreement in 2009. The Federal
Government position is that although there
were delays in the implementation of this
aspect of the agreement, having commenced
the process in 2013 with N100b, there would
be annual progressive intervention in the
following years. Chairman of the Committee,
Governor Suswam has repeatedly assured that
based on the assurances received from the
sources of funds (federal agencies) more funds
would be mobilized and progressively applied
to the identified needs of all Nigerian public
Universities. It is evident from assurances
received that funds for the intervention
package for 2014 will surely increase and
possibly double in quantum. What this means
is that the Universities would in the same vein
progressively increase the quality and quantity
of their infrastructural facilities.
From the foregoing, there is absolute need for
ASUU to have a rethink and discontinue the
strike. The two-month old strike has yielded
results in the sense that ASUU has by the
measure got the Federal Government to begin
work on the infrastructural requirements of
the public universities. The ASUU can and
should encourage the Federal Government to
continue in this direction by calling-off the
strike to enable the students resume lectures
on the various campuses.