as NASS moves to save Nigeria’s foreign missions By Henry Umoru & Joseph Erunke ABUJA—THE National Assembly has concluded plans to rescue the nation’s embassies across the world by increasing the N14.6 billion provided for the missions in the 2016 virement requested by President Muhammadu Buhari. This came as indications emerged yesterday that the Senate and representatives of the nation’s university lecturers, under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, may resume talks today in a bid to forestall the proposed nationwide indefinite strike by the latter. A source told Vanguard that with the action, the missions would then have sufficient funds to operate successfully and give quality representation to Nigeria’s interest in the countries they were domiciled. The decision was taken at the joint meeting of the Appropriation Committees of both chambers with the executive during the virement review exercise, just as the legislators believed that the embassies should be well funded, so they could hold their own against other foreign missions in their countries of assignments to properly represent the nation’s interests. A source who was privy to the discussions at National Assembly leadership meeting, said: “During our discussion, we agreed that our embassies are public relations centres for the nation. They shape international perception of our country. ‘’Now that we are trying to attract investors and build investors’ confidence in our economy, our embassies must be put in a pole position to coordinate the efforts at the foreign level to revive our economy. ‘’They must be well-funded and well-managed to confidently provide prompt, efficient and good services for intending visitors to our country. “We also expect our embassies to be more pro-active in serving our fellow country people resident in their various countries of domicile, co-ordinate how we market Nigeria to the international community and attract the right attention to our country. “The National Assembly is set to ensure that our foreign missions are properly managed and well focussed to be key centres in reviving the economy, enhancing Nigeria’s image abroad and helping the country to claim its rightful place in the international community. ‘’We will relate with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Investment to ensure the embassies have new mandates and fulfil them.” Meanwhile, there are indications that the Senate and representatives of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, may resume talks today to stave off the proposed indefinite strike nationwide by the latter. The indication came when the Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Jibrin Barau, disclosed yesterday, that the adhoc sub-committee set up by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the ASUU/Federal Government delegations might reconvene tomorrow to sort out the only outstanding issue yet to be agreed upon by the university lecturers and government representatives. Barau, who is also the head of the Senate Intervention Subcommittee mediating between ASUU and the Federal Government, noted that Senate had made tremendous progress in its intervention to prevent the proposed strike, having reached agreement on five of the six key issues raised by ASUU. Speaking to reporters at the National Assembly on the outcome of the subcommittee’s meeting with the ASUU and Federal Government’s delegation on Monday, Barau said: “We had about six issues and all of them were very well discussed. We deliberated and agreed on all of them except one, and that one has to do with the earned allowances. “Now, they ASUU are asking for about N62billion. Initially, N30billion was given to the universities in 2013 and the agreement as signed between the Federal Government and the ASUU clearly specifies that upon the receipt of any payment, before any new payment is made, the last payment has to be accounted for. “The Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) clearly wrote in one of its letters to the Ministry of Education that it is not satisfied with the level of accountability on the N30billion. “So, a letter was sent to the Ministry of Finance since March that the forensic audit to account for that money has not been done. They said no other further disbursement can be made except the money that was given is accounted for as clearly spelt out in the agreement. “We then said, wait, the fact that the forensic audit was not carried out was not the fault of ASUU. So we then agreed that for the exercise to be conducted, it was estimated by experts that it would take six months to conclude the exercise. “Then we said look, it will be unfair to ask ASUU to wait without being paid while the exercise is being carried out. We said ASUU should be paid N1billion every month while the forensic audit exercise is being carried out. “ASUU said they will not take N1billion. We now asked ASUU to accept N1.5billion while the exercise is being concluded. ASUU said they will go back and consult with their members and that they are going to get back to us
“Therefore, we are waiting for ASUU to get back to us but definitely the meeting may take place on Thursday so that we can thrash out the only one remaining issue, since we don’t have the luxury of time on our side. The Senate wants all contending issues to be resolved within the shortest time possible so as to keep the academic calendar running smoothly in all our universities,” he said.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/11/senate-cttee-ASUU-may-resume-talks-tomorrow/ cc lalasticlala |