It seems like the end is still far, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities is insisting that they will continue to fight for their right and the right of every Academic institution in Nigeria to be well-equip.
Despite numerous pleas by stakeholders and Nigerian students to end this strike, the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Abiodun Ogunyemi, insists that all academic institutions (schools) under the ASUU Umbrella will remain shut until issues of members’ salaries and revitalization are settled by the federal government.
Recall: President Buhari agrees to pay ASUU N30bn earned allowance To end STRIKE? Well, the issue is which platform should be used for payment. Beside this, the federal government is calling ASUU six request absolutely unbelievable.
Take note that this is the second time in one week, that the meeting between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities ended in deadlock on Wednesday as both parties failed to agree on the payment platform that will be used in disbursing the salary arrears and the N30bn Earned Allowance of the university lecturers.
The Federal Government team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had offered to pay the salary arrears and the N30bn Earned Allowances of the university lecturers through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System platform pending the roll-out of ASUU’s preferred platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
However, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU National President who led the ASUU delegates to meet the federal government, insisted that the payment should be made through the UTAS only
Sequel to their failure to reach a consensus, the parties agreed to consult their respective principals and stakeholders and adjourned till next week Wednesday, and we’re hoping to see if either the federal government or ASUU, will be willing to meet cross-road to reach an agreement that will see public universities resume academic activities.
Speaking on his stance on the seven-month strike embarked on by university teachers, the National president said and I quote below:
Nothing has changed significantly. We have presented our issues to the federal government as we promised earlier (If you missed this news, you can read it here). Initially, we started with five issues, and we now have six issues that needs urgent attention before the strike will be called off. These agenda are:
- Revitalisaton of universities;
- Renegotiation of 2009 agreement;
- Visitation panels to universities;
- The proliferation of universities, particularly by state governments,
- Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) of members.
The starting point is to say that those were outstanding issues from the memorandum of agreement signed with the government on February 7, 2019, which the Nigerian government has not done anything significant to address. But since then, Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) has been elevated almost over and above these other issues earlier highlighted.
So far, we have presented the issue to the minister of education and members of his team, the Senate President, and to a larger audience in the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, and this is where all major stakeholders were represented – Ministries of Labour and Unemployment; Education, Office of the Accountant-General itself, Finance and, of course, experts from the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the body that regulates information technology development in the country.
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