Strike: Channel Abacha Loot To ASUU — Lawmaker Advises FG

A member of the House of Representatives, Dachung Musa Bagos, has advised the Federal Government to channel some of the recently returned $23,439,724 million Abacha loot to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Speaking on Channels Television's Politics Today, the member representing Jos South/Jos East said one of the pressing needs of the nation is the payment of the striking lecturers which has caused public universities to remain closed for months.

Bagos added that the returned loot is used in some areas that do not benefit the members of the public.

 “We have pressing needs. Like now, ASUU has been on strike, and the government is trying to settle those issues.

“As a representative of the people, if I have to argue where those funds should be channelled to on the floor, I will say, ‘Why can’t you channel this fund to ASUU so that most of the youths that are at home would go back to school?’ But some of the areas we feel that the executive is channelling those funds are not the immediate needs of Nigerians,” he said.

“This is my third year in the National Assembly, we have never discussed any of the recovered loot. We just sit down and we hear that the executive recovered loot and allotted the same to projects that they so desire.

“We believe that when we discuss these issues at the National Assembly, we appropriate those funds according to the needs of Nigeria, it is going to go a long way; not just the executive looking at it and alloting it (the fund) to what they feel it should be. The constitution has given us that right,” he further explained.

AllNews Nigeria reports that Nigeria and the United States of America (USA) on Tuesday, signed an agreement for the repatriation of the $23,439,724 recovered funds said to have been looted by the Late General Sani Abacha.

Lecturers in Nigerian public universities under the umbrella have also been on strike for over six months due to reasons including the revitalisation of public universities and improved welfare among others as embodied in the 2009 ASUU-FG agreement which amounts to about N1.1 trillion.