TheCable

Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the federal government is the “greatest” problem of the universities.

Osodeke said this on Monday at the meeting between the union, leadership of the house of representatives, and representatives of the federal government.

ASUU recently suspended its eight months of industrial action after the court of appeal sitting in Abuja ordered the union to call off the strike.

The union is demanding improved funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, visitation panels/release of white papers, among others.

Speaking on Monday, the ASUU president said universities cannot invest funds because of the TSA policy.

According to him, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) used to invest funds in the past but that stopped after TSA was introduced.

“The strike we called off. Our members did it based on trust in us and the way the speaker has intervened — three meetings now. It was on that basis we were able to convince them,” he said.

“The greatest problem universities have is this TSA. In those days, UNILAG had one of the best investments all over the world. They invest money and make profits. But today, no university can invest money because of TSA, thus distorting the revenue of most agencies.

“Because of the peculiarity of universities, we agreed that let some of these universities take care of their funds and use it for investments and make a profit. You have universities that have N10 billion in their accounts and not yielding profit because of TSA.”

On his part, Gbajabiamila said there is a plan to amend the National Universities Commission (NUC) Act to allow universities to invest funds.

He added that the green chamber will convene an education summit in November to address the challenges in the tertiary education sector.

“This ASUU strike is becoming perennial; our education is in disarray and the house is organising a summit on the education sector. The notice will be out. All these are issues are to be addressed. The summit will be starting in November where all these issues will be addressed,” Gbajabiamila said.

In his remarks, Sylva Okolieaboh, acting accountant-general of the federation, said the government will modify the platform as necessary.

“I think it is high time we meet to have a comprehensive list of all the peculiarities of ASUU and their members. Whatever the number, whatever the complication it may be, we should be able to clear this. We have to continue to pay ASUU and their members,” he added.

“What we will do is look at what we have at the moment so that we can continue to pay them. We are accommodating all the material peculiarities.”

The federal government began the TSA implementation in September 2015 to unify all its accounts by ensuring that funds belonging to the government are saved with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Meanwhile, following issues raised over exploitation and diversion of public funds, the federal government, in August 2022, inaugurated a presidential steering committee to review the government’s account systems — including the TSA — citing “technical challenges”.