Is the ASUU Strike ending today? the Federal government and the Academic staff union of Universities, ASUU will be meeting today. According to confirmed news from ASUU president, the Union and the Federal government has agreed on two important points that initially made the union start their strike on 14th February.
As the federal government and leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) meet today, the union has expressed the hope of calling off the strike if the government meets its demands.
Latest news on the ASUU strike reaching us today, is coming directly from the office of the ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who shared an important update when he appeared as a guest on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The ASUU president disclosed live on Channel’s TV, the issue of IPPIS and UTAS had been put to rest and insisted that the federal government has the capacity to meet the union’s demands.
For those who are NOT aware, ASUU strike has entered six months without headway so far. August 14th, made the strike 6 months old, since the first strike action started on February 14th.
The strike, which started in February 14th, has been extended several times because the union’s demands are yet to be met by the federal government of Nigeria.
The ASUU president said that the government lackadaisical attitude towards ending the strike is the sole reason why students are out of their classrooms for six months, and said the union’s platform, UTAS, was ready for application.
He said:
“When they came with this IPPIS integration, the union gathered, had a meeting and in one voice, told them that it simply cannot accommodate universities and during that period, the accountant general, and the person in charge of IPPIS, when we met and finish the discussion and we found out the weakness in IPPIS, they agreed we should provide a different but viable solution. So we went back to the drawing board, and came out with UTAS.
“UTAS is ready and is the best platform to resolve any crisis. My happiness today about this strike is that for the first time they have tested IPPIS. It came in 2006 and it was never tested; they have been using it untested.
“I’m Happy that the current Minister of communication and digital economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), stPhD, FNCS, FBCS, FIIM has been tested it, and confirmed that there were multiple errors in IPPIS payment platform. Let them release the results it will tell us, UTAS came first in all the payment platforms.
“We and SSANU, we don’t have a problem on UTAS again, we are in unity now over the platform. So we are just waiting for the government go-ahead.
“We don’t have any faction of university lecturers. Whoever is doing that may be trying to use them against us. For you to have a union in a country like this, that means the union has to be registered, right? Where’s the faction of UNiversity lecturers? what are their registered name?
“One, the issue of IPPIS and UTAS has to be put to rest because the test has been done and confirmed by the Minister of communication, Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), stPhD, FNCS, FBCS, FIIM.
“If this government is serious about implementing our demands and having a one-on-one discussion with the union, I am telling you today, this strike wouldn’t last more than two weeks. We were supposed to go on strike in November 2021. But the NIREC came in and intervened and we respected them, and were considerate to them. They met with the president, he set up a committee headed by the chief of staff that they should resolve this quickly and they did nothing to resolve it. After three months, there was nothing for us to do, except start a warning strike.
“They set up the Nimi Briggs committee, we finished discussing with them they didn’t come back, the president directed the minister of education to resolve this within two weeks, two weeks has passed, they didn’t come back.
“We feel sad about this six month old strike, and honestly, if we resume full academic activities tomorrow, in the next four years, I cannot go on leave because I’m going to cover the backlog of work that we should have done while on strike.
“If the meeting with the federal government goes as planned, and they are willing to sign what we bargained, we call off strike,” he added.
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