ASUU Threatens Fresh Strike Over Ippis, Others

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has threatened to resume the industrial action it suspended since December 2020 over the Federal Government’s alleged failure to honour many of the agreements it signed with the Union.

The Chairperson, ASUU, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Dr. Ibrahim Inuwa, stated this while speaking with select journalists at the Union’s Secretariat.

He said the protracted strike, which was to press home their demands for the continuous survival of public university system in Nigeria, was suspended in December after the two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the various issues providing timelines for the implementation of each of the eight items.

Inuwa, who said that over seven months after the MoU was signed, only two out of the eight issues have been addressed, listed some of the issues to include Earned Academic Allowance, Funding for revitalisation of public universities, Salary shortfall, Proliferation of state universities and Visitation Panel.

Others, he added, are Renegotiation, Replacement of the Integrated payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) and withheld salaries and non-remittance of Check-off Dues but “only salary shortfall and visitation panels to federal universities have been addressed.”

He said, “Renegotiation of the 2009 agreement which would have been completed within eight weeks from the date of inauguration of the committee has up till now not been concluded, even though the Committee was inaugurated since December 2020.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria willingly agreed that the UTAS will replace the IPPIS as a payment platform in Federal Universities after it passed an integrity test. However, soon after the agreement, agents of the FGN are doing everything possible to frustrate the coming of UTAS onboard.

“Meanwhile the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation through the IPPIS office have continued to omit our members from payment of salaries while others experience serious salary amputation. We are convinced this is done in connivance with the University Administration through the distortion of our members’ personal details.

Crd; Punch Newspapers

#campusupdatesng

Gone.
Education is gone