The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has demanded that the  federal government honour the agreement it reached with the union seven years ago.

It is also insisting on the full release of 495 billion Naira, being the funds needed to revamp Nigeria’s universities, as contained in the agreement.

This was made known by ASUU’s Zonal Coordinator, Beke Sese, in a press conference in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Capital, on Thursday.

Sese said ASUU had presented a Technical Committee set up by government with an estimate of N1.5 trillion needed to revamp the country’s tertiary institutions.

The amount was reviewed downwards by the committee, to N800 million.

But according to Sese, aside the initial tranche that was eventually released in 2013, the government had refused to credit a dedicated account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, set up for that purpose.

ASUU also bemoaned the non-payment of the university lecturers’ Earned Academic Allowances, staff salaries, the arbitrary removal and appointment of vice chancellors in federal institutions and the introduction of the Treasury Single Account into the university system.

Sese also said there was need to renegotiate the 2009 agreement, amend the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, National Universities Commission, NUC, and National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions Act 2004.

ASUU also demanded audience with President Muhammadu Buhari, whom, Sese said had been difficult to see one-on-one.