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| Ogunyemi |
Why the strike lingers – ASUU
By Uji
Abdullahi Iliyasu
Abuja
The Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that their disagreement with
the federal government persists because of government’s uncompromising attitude
towards their demands.
A press
release signed by ASUU chairman, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, and made available
to Blueprint Sunday said the union
had shifted positions in some respects, for instance, they had reduced their
demand of one tranche of N220bn of the outstanding revitalisation fund by
50 per cent, even as they had also agreed that N30bn out of the so far verified
arrears of N40bn of the earned academic allowances (EAA) be paid to their
members while the balance of N10bn could be spread over the next two tranches.
“We were
equally making steady progress on other issues. What has stalled meaningful
dialogue was government’s insistence that payment of the withheld salaries and
other entitlements of our members would only be effected through the Integrated
Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
“In
closing the meeting between the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government team last Wednesday, November 4,
2020, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, promised to
send to the Union government’s written position on ASUU’s response to their
initial offer.
“He
said all concerned Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would be
consulted on Friday, November 6, for their inputs into government’s new
position,” the release reads in part.
Ogunyemi
therefore, begged Nigerians to bear with ASUU as “we are fighting your
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.”
Ogunyemi said
government was punishing university teachers because they had rejected IPPIS,
which was imposed on universities against the provisions of the law on autonomy
and universal practices.
According to
the release, ASUU is 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.
“UTAS
has been presented to the Minister of Education and senior management staff of
the Ministry, 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.”
On November
5, 2020, the National Universities Commission (NUC), he said, 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, even as the final test with NITDA could be completed as a matter of
days, and UTAS adopted in place of IPPIS in our universities.
ASUU
chair said the claim by government that the platform used in paying their
members’ salaries before the imposition of IPPIS had been dismantled was not
true, stressing that some of their members who had not enrolled on 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) had illegally
seized all the deducted union check-off dues of our members in the last nine
months.
Ogunyemi
therefore, urged government to release all what is due ASUU members and the
union without the conditionality of IPPIS, to enable them conclude on the
outstanding five demands (revitalisation, EAA, renegotiation of the 2009
Agreement, inauguration of the Visitation Panels, proliferation of state
universities and governance issues in them) of the Union to pave way for the
quick resolution of the lingering crisis.