…..FG Taking Positive Steps to Resolve ASUU Crisis, Says Lai Mohammed
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) urged the Federal Government to leave the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a condition to call off its ongoing strike in the country.
Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President said this in a statement made available on Sunday in Abuja that the ongoing strike may still linger if government failed to meets its demand.
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that ASUU had embarked a nationwide strike on March 23 to press on its demands which include revitalisation, Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement, Visitation Panels, among others.
According to Ogunyemi, Nigerians should bear with us. ASUU is doing their battle.
“Our Union is struggling to ensure that the children of the poor, who cannot afford the prohibitive cost paid in private universities or do not have opportunities to study outside Nigeria, get quality education which is not priced beyond their reach.
“This will only happen when government adequately funds public universities and addresses the rot and decay in them.
“ASUU has shifted positions in some respects.
“For instance, our members have reduced their demand of one tranche N220bn of the outstanding revitalization fund by 50 per cent.
“The Union has also agreed that N30bn out of the so far verified arrears of N40bn of the earned academic allowances (EAA) be paid to our members while the balance of N10bn could be spread over the next two tranches,
“We were equally making steady progress on other issues,”he said.
ASUU president, therefore, noted that what had stalled meaningful dialogue was government’s insistence that payment of the withheld salaries and other entitlements of its members would only be effected through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
He added that government was punishing university teachers because they rejected IPPIS, which was imposed on the universities against the provisions of the law on autonomy and universal practices.
He however, said that ASUU was at the final stage of the integrity test of the Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
UTAS was developed locally by ASUU members, unlike IPPIS which was engineered by the World Bank.
Ogunyemi said UTAS had been presented to the Minister of Education and senior management staff, the President and leadership of Senate, and the Office of the Accountant-General where NITDA and Office of the National Security Adviser and other MDAs were fully represented.
“Last Thursday, 5th November, 2020, the National Universities Commission (NUC) facilitated the presentation of UTAS to Vice-Chancellors and Bursars of federal universities.
“All questions raised at the four levels of presentation of UTAS were satisfactorily answered.
“With the full cooperation of the concerned agencies, the final test with NITDA could be completed as a matter of days and UTAS adopted in place of IPPIS in our universities.
“ASUU disagrees with government on the use of IPPIS during the so-called transition period.
“In practical terms, there is no transition period if government is sincere,”Ogunyemi said.
The ASUU president said it would take a longer period to capture more than three-quarters of its members who were not yet on IPPIS than the time required to run through the last stage of the integrity test for UTAS.
He added that the claim by government that the platform used in paying its members’ salaries before the imposition of IPPIS had been dismantled was not true.
He noted that some of its members who had not enrolled in IPPIS were paid part of their withheld salaries last week.
“But, in furtherance of the attack on ASUU, the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) has illegally seized all the deducted union check-off dues of our members in the last nine months.
“So, government should release all what is due ASUU members and the union without the conditionality of IPPIS.
“That would enable us conclude on the outstanding five demands including revitalisation, EAA, renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement, inauguration of the Visitation Panels.
“Others are proliferation of state universities and governance issues in them of the Union to pave way for the quick resolution of the lingering crisis.
“It is government that is prolonging the matter, not ASUU,” he added.
FG Taking Positive Steps to Resolve ASUU Crisis, Says Lai Mohammed
The federal government claimed during the weekend that more positive steps have been taken to resolve the lingering crisis between the government and the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
This was disclosed by the Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, in Ilorin, Kwara State’s capital, during a town hall meeting to intimate the stakeholders in the state of the federal government’s efforts to address the issues raised by the #EndSARS protest in the country.
Mohammed said: “the federal government is committed to the peaceful resolution of the crisis so as to allow our children to return to classes for their academic excellence.
“The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige and the Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu have been working tirelessly with the leadership of the ASUU to put an end to the faceoff.
“And I know that the negotiation will yield positive results and our students would resume academic lectures so as to move the education forward in the country.”
Mohammed, who was bombarded with question on the state of economy, insecurity, youths unemployment, closure of country’s borders and road transportation problem among others, appealed to Nigerians to bear with the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in the face of daunting socio-economic challenges the country is facing.
He reminded his audience that the nation was just recovering from the ugly effects of the COVID-19 pandemic disease and the #EndSARS protests in many parts of the country and assured them that the federal government is committed to educational, economic, security and youth development, among other areas of growth.
He also said that the border closure was meant to find solutions to the nation’s nagging security issues, health, promotion of local industrial growth and economic development.
Also speaking during the town hall meeting was the Kwara State Governor, Mr. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who lauded the federal constituency policies put in place to address the issues that were brought to the fore by the recent #EndSARS protest in the country.
AbdulRazaq said that the federal government’s directive to the ministers and special advisers of the President to visit their various states would assist the government to collect the views of the people on the way to move the country forward.
He, therefore, said that the state government has put in place some policies that would ameliorate the sufferings of those affected by the looting that took place in the state.
The stakeholders that attended the town hall meeting include the royal fathers who were led by the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Rahim Sulu-Gambari, students, market women, civil societies, transporters, members of political parties and members of the Academic Staff Union of University of Ilorin, which were led by the Chairman of ASUU, Prof. Salihu Moyosore Ajao.
