FG Can't Meet With ASUU Demands - Okonjo-Iweala

Hopes of quick resolution of the present face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities were dashed on Tuesday as the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the government has no resources to meet the union demands.

The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at the opening of a two-day meeting of Commissioners of Finance and Accountants-General of states on Tuesday, said:

At present, ASUU wants government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances when the resources are not there and when we are working to integrate past increases in pensions. 

The country is still suffering from the effect of the 2010 increase in salary. Do we want
to get to a stage in this country that all the money we earn is used to pay salaries and allowances? 

We need to make choices in this country as we are getting to the stage where recurrent expenditures take the bulk of our resources and people get paid but can do no work.

She declared that if the demands of the university lecturers are met and “we continue to pay them salaries and allowances we will not be able to provide infrastructure in the universities.”