The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it won’t resume discussions to end the ongoing strike action until the federal government settles all its members’ outstanding arrears.
ASUU national president, Biodun Ogunyemi, made this disclosure on Tuesday at the University of Abuja, Gwagwalada Campus, while unveiling the union’s Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
According to Ogunyemi, its members at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) and the Michael Opera University of Agriculture have not been paid about five months’ salaries over non-registration into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
He said: “Thousands of other academics across the Universities are suffering the same fate. So, while we counsel that government at both the federal and state levels must meet the Taskforce specified guidelines for reopening of educational institutions, we insist that all the arrears of the withheld salaries of our members in federal and state Universities must be paid immediately to pave for further discussion on the outstanding issues in the Memorandum of Action of February 7 2019.”
Ogunyemi also noted that since the union has taken concerted steps towards achieving provisions of the IPPIS initiative with the UTAS, ASUU expects the federal government to also reciprocate the gesture by addressing its demands that led to the strike in the first place.
According to him, the UTAS software is now ready for integrity tests as requested by the federal government.
He added: “It is our sincere hope that the government would not renege on its promise because the benefits of UTAS to the university system (both public and private) cannot be found in any other software in Nigeria today. Now that the union is close to meeting the government’s demand on an alternative to IPPIS, it is our sincere hope that the substantive issues in the ongoing strike action would be given the desired attention.”
