₦airaland Forum

Neddyogu:
How can ASUU peg wage increase at between 109 and 185% increment and expect FG to take them seriously? They should have asked for the CBN too.

Legendforte:
Likewise ASUU leadership

The Federal Government on Wednesday stated that there was no Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between it and the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) awaiting the signature of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige said this in a statement by the Deputy Director Press and Public Relations in the Ministry, Olajide Oshundun on Wednesday.

Ngige noted that even when such a CBA was produced between unions and the Federal Government, it was not the President that would sign but the government side, MDAs led by the direct employer with the conciliating ministry witnessing.

The Minister accused ASUU of fixing its salaries and allowances through the Nimi Briggs Committee to the exclusion of the statutory government ministries and agencies that manage the entire annual finances of government, budget and fiscal policies and the Office of the Head of Service in charge of ensuring that public service rules and regulations are not undermined in any condition of service offered to public officers in the universities.

According to him, Prof. Briggs Proposal of 109 -185% increase in the university wage structure, would cost the federal government N560bn as salaries alone in addition to the current N412bn.

He added that N1.12tn would be needed to pay the salaries and allowances of university lecturers and other staff in the university system.

The statement reads: “This clarification has become necessary in view of the deluge of deliberate misinformation being dished out to Nigerians by the President of ASUU, Prof. Osodeke as well as his branch leaders, calling on President Buhari to sign an agreement which they claimed to have reached with the Federal Government.

“We wish therefore to inform Nigerians that there is no such Collective Bargaining Agreement(CBA) that has been reached between the Federal Government, ASUU and other university unions on the renegotiation of their salaries and allowances(wages). What is in existence is a proposal. Even when such a CBA is made , it is not the President that signs it. From available records, no Nigerian President or sovereign signs such.

“The true position is that Nigerians are aware that ASUU has been on strike since February 14, 2022 and locked in negotiations on their demand, especially of their conditions of service – wages , salaries, allowances and other public service matters, that should be guided by relevant Federal Government Ministries and agencies – Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Budget office of the Federation , National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Office of Head of Service of the Federation, through the newly set up Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee.

“Note that Prof Nimi Brigg Committee just like the Prof. Munzali Committee it replaced , is an internal committee of the Ministry of Education to receive ASUU demands and renegotiate areas of 2009 Agreement while also receiving briefs from the MDAs mentioned above that act as advisers, before making any counter offer to ASUU and other unions.

“Unfortunately, ASUU insisted that these relevant advisory MDAs recuse themselves from the sitting of the Briggs Committee accusing them of non-cooperation. All alone with the Prof Briggs Committee, ASUU started fixing their salaries and allowances to the exclusion of the statutory government ministries and agencies that manage the entire annual finances of government , budget and fiscal policies and the Office of the Head of Service that is in charge of ensuring that public service rules and regulations are not undermined in any condition of service offered to public officers in the universities.

“Because of this exclusion engineered by ASUU, and the arising complaints to the Chief of Staff to the President and the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment by the concerned MADs , the Chief of Staff and the Honourable Minister of Labour set up an inter-Ministerial/Agency sub Committee comprising the affected MDA’s under the Minister of State Budget and Planning to quickly look into Prof. Briggs Committee report which to all intents and purpose was still a proposal in June 2022 at the government side meeting. This assignment was to be completed with the Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages and given two weeks to come up with their recommendation.

“Having rounded off its work, the committee returned as verdict; that with the Prof. Briggs Proposal of 109 -185% increase in the university wage structure, the Federal Government will incur an additional N560b as salaries alone , on top of the present N412B , less all other allowances such as Earned Academic Allowances and fringe benefits , Teaching Allowance, Field trip, responsibility and Postgraduate supervision , allowances, Hazard allowances which were to gulp another N170B.

“In all, the sum of N1.12 Trillion will be needed to pay the salaries and allowances of university lecturers and other staff in the university system . At present , the wage bill of the university staff and their colleagues in Teaching Health Systems gulp nearly 50% of the total federal government staff personnel cost/wages . Recall that the staff of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education have also placed their wage review on the front burner since two months ago. This is just like the medical doctors and the JOHESU who have placed before the federal government, the need for wage review which the government agrees that even with the 10% review of salary , following the Minimum Wage and the Consequential review of 2019, her employees will need some salary enhancement for all sectors and just for education or health employees alone.

“Currently, the Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages has finished the review of the Prof. Nimi Briggs proposal and will shortly submit the same to the President. This clears every doubt that there is an agreement before the President waiting for his signature. There is none!

“On UTAS , UPPPS and IPPIS , Nigerians will recall that IPPIS was an inherited payment platform meant to run side by side the corrupt ridden defunct GIFMIS platform. However because of the issues of ghost workers, inflated personnel cost , non-payment of PAYE taxes by federal employees in the states to their respective states governments, who turn around to collect these tax and the differential from the federal government, through the Joint Tax Board government decided to make IPPIS payment platform, sole and compulsory to all federal government staff drawing their remunerations from the federal government treasury.

“However, ASUU and other staff of the universities complained that IPPIS did not capture the peculiarities of the university system;

OGHENAOGIE:
Ina no like truth... Shebi South Africa come Nigeria beat una for Aisha cup no worry una go still collect

Wallade:
Oh shut up, she marked her opponent who had to cut back and pass the ball to a free South Africa lady who was free and supposed to be marked by the two central defenders of Super Falcons.

OGHENAOGIE:
south AFrica are better currently so tone down... Make falcon qualify for world cup as for the trophy they can't win it... It's Left for NFF to build female league and stop this nonsense of always employing foreign coach...

SlyCharlie:
Which lazy oyibo defender??
Someone that was one of the standouts in that first match despite being played out of position??
Omo, Na wa o

Reussite:
Nope it's the other way round. They actually got 4 past Burundi.
Yes I agree Chikwelu & Ayinde are spent already. Ajibade could be more impressive I totally agree. I don't see them going far anyways.

KosiGee:
Ajibade is supposed to be one of the best players in this team but she is a let down. She in my opinion is one of the worst. Her ball juggling and other skills go AWOL whenever she’s playing, she can be slow in making decision and when she does, she executes poorly. She sometimes hold onto the ball a bit too long when she’s supposed to release to a better placed player. She over hits her passes or passes a bit too short.

Best player in the team so far is the tall Yekini like no 9, Onumonu. She need to improve on her shooting though.

The Ajibades, Chikwelu, Ayinde need to improve their games. This is not the falcon of old.

Congrats to them but this isn’t the team to judge or make any assesment. This Botswana team conceded 4 against Burundi and Burundi.

garfield1:
It will.section 33 is very clear.no party can substitute a candidate except by death or withdrawal. No provision for disq...cc ojuntana

fergie001:
All prayers were granted excepting the bolded.

Addme SamOchuko seunmsg garfield1 vicdom kyase AAA593
Delta PDP have said they will appeal....but if I follow the Diri v Degi issue, he will need to fast and pray very fervently.

LeanonGOD:
South Africa 2.
Coach - bring in Francisca ORDEGA.

There appears no end in sight to the strike by university teachers as the national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said they are yet to hear from the government, after meeting with Prof. Nimi Briggs renegotiation committee.

The committee is expected to review the draft proposed 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and renegotiate with all the striking unions.

Since April 2022, the Briggs renegotiation committee had been meeting with the unions to address the thorny issues in the 2009 agreement.

Osodeke in an interview said they are yet to hear from the Federal Government on the report of meetings had so far.

He said: “Since our meeting with the Briggs committee, the government has not called us for any feedback. All the committee told us was that they are waiting for their principal to respond, that once the Federal Government responds, they will get back to us.”

Osodeke said they had not gotten the invitation for another meeting and nothing is happening for now.

He, however, lamented that this was the situation since May 2021, “the same way they told us they were waiting for the FG and yet no result.”

Similarly, the national president, of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Ibrahim Mohammed, said all they have done were appraisals and reviews, while the Briggs committee said it would report to the Federal Government for the next line of action.

While ASUU commenced strike on February 14, SSANU’s strike started with a warning strike of two weeks, which commenced on March 27.

Some of the demands of SSANU include the inconsistent issue of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), unpaid earned allowances, and delay in the renegotiation of FGN, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and allied institutions (NASU) agreements, and non-payment of minimum wage arrears.

Others include neglect and poor funding of state universities, non-payment of retirement benefits to outgoing members of the unions, and usurpation of the headship of non-teaching units in clear violation of conditions of service and establishment procedures, among others.

ASUU’s demands include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the Universities Transparency and Accountability System (UTAS) for payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers

excel127:
Ijebu Fabrizio Romano

sinkhole:
Nothing will be presented to FEC.
President is not even in Nigeria
But, seriously the whole discussion is at a very advanced stage now, there are some minor things to tidy up between the FG and the Unions.
Ngige said that the FG sides will submit reports to him, latest today. Then they will call the Unions to give them the FG's final resolution, if everything is OK then signing will be done and all will laugh

HaryaorGirl:
Richiez, Fynestboi, olawalebabs, Lalasticlala, mynd44

HaryaorGirl:
In other news...

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has observed that resolving its ongoing strike action could be done by the adoption of the transparent payment platform, University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS).

So far so good, the only reason why we have been at home for the past 4 months is not because of salary arrears or revisitation funds.

The strike has always been because OF UTAS-A payment platform which ASUU designed to suit their own taste.

Meanwhile the army, doctors, police, etc are not complaining about IPPIS.


ASUU ARE JUST BEEN WICKED and they don't give a damn about we students.

They should be banned

#ENDASUU #ENDUTAS

Jman06:
I believe that domesticating IPPIS in the universities and having ASUU monitor its operations would solve the problem of undue deductions and reduce the stress of lecturers having to travel to Abuja sort out issues with payments.

Jman06:
I just hope ASUU excos are thinking properly!

From the way the payment platform issue is going, it is looking like an impossible task for ASUU to insist on UTAS. Already, SSANU has developed another platform which they called U3P or whatever. Very soon other unions will start coming up with their own platforms thereby defeating the noble purpose of IPPIS. No leader would want to be in that situation!

ASUU should please, in the interest of students, stop this insistence on UTAS. Instead, let them work with the FG to domesticate IPPIS in the various universities in order to help monitor the platform and curtail the bottlenecks in IPPIS.

Let them strive to always fight a just fight and not a fight that would create chaos in the polity. If they've been able to negotiate better pay with the Brigg's committee, let them forget UTAS and work on improving IPPIS, otherwise, they maybe giving Nigerians the impression that they have another fraudulent agenda with the UTAS platform.