The Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) has asked the federal government to leave out the
Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a condition to call
off its strike.
ASUU has been at loggerheads with
the federal government since it initiated a nationwide strike action in March
over IPPIS as well as a disagreement pertaining to the revitalization of
universities and earned academic allowances.
Biodun Ogunyemi, the union’s president,
who issued a statement via NAN on Sunday, said the strike, over which ASUU had
severally dialogued with the government, may still linger on if FG fails to
meet its demands.
He said the dialogue had come to
a stalemate after FG insisted that the payment of the withheld salaries and
other entitlements of its members would only be effected through the IPPIS, a
payroll software ASUU had rejected.
“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,” Ogunyemi said.
“This will only happen when FG
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 percent.
“The Union has also agreed that
N30 billion out of the so-far-verified arrears of N40 billion of the earned
academic allowances (EAA) be paid to our members while the balance of N10bn
could be spread over the next two tranches.”
Ogunyemi said ASUU is at the
final stage of integrity test for the Transparency and Accountability Solution
(UTAS), an alternative software it had proposed, with the National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
He said UTAS has been presented
to the minister of education; the leadership of the senate; and the office of
the accountant-general, where NITDA and the office of the national security
adviser and other MDAs were represented.
The ASUU president stated that 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.
“Last Thursday, 5th November, the
National Universities Commission (NUC) facilitated the presentation of UTAS to
vice-chancellors and bursars of federal universities,” Ogunyemi added.
“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.
“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, FG should release all that
is due to ASUU members and the union without the conditionality of IPPIS.
“That would enable us to conclude
on the outstanding five demands including revitalisation, EAA, renegotiation of
the 2009 Agreement, the inauguration of the visitation panels.
“Others are the 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 the government that is
prolonging the matter, not ASUU.”
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ASUU must insist. See the newly recruited police constables being owed over 6 months salary the IPPIS is not working for them. This Government have frittered away all the money that had accrued to Nigeria including the loans it collected. The only country that collects loan specifically to fund corruption.
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