By Peace O. Aboje
THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday rejected an offer by the federal government to accommodate identified peculiarities of university workers as contained in the union’s University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS) on government’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this at a meeting facilitated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, which held on Thursday, September 29, 2022, stating that it was not the first time the government was making a promise of looking into the issues and yet failed.
According to Prof Osedeke, ASUU, based on the University Miscellaneous Act, insisted on the autonomy of the university system by rejecting the payment of salaries through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
Osodeke questioned NITDA’s refusal to make available the report of the last test conducted on UTAS, insisting that the report must be made available for the union to study. “We have two options. Use the one we have developed. Is there any other country in the world where the salaries of universities are paid by the office of accountant general? No country in the world will harvest the data of their university lecturers and give it to a foreign company.
“The Nigerian people have a law that says that the universities are autonomous. What we want is real accountability. Allow the universities to operate on the basis of the laws of the country.
“Circulars should not dictate what goes on in the university system. It’s this perception that the universities are corrupt and cannot manage themselves that has put us into this problem.
“Until we see the report and our committee goes through it, we cannot talk. Why did you send the first two to us and refused to send the last one?” Osedeke queried NITDA.
The Acting Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Okolieaboh Sylva, at a meeting of relevant parties involved in the lingering crisis between the government and the striking ASUU had presented federal government’s offer to accommodate peculiarities of university workers on the IPPIS at Thursday’s meeting.
Also at the meeting were other heads of ministries, departments and agencies of government including the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr Kashifu Inuwa; Director General of the Budget Office, Mr Ben Akabueze, and the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Folashade Yemi-Esan.
This may have foreclosed the possibility of the adoption of UTAS developed and proposed to the government by ASUU.
ASUU’s non-academic counterparts; the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) have also presented another alternative payment platform, tagged ‘University Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (U3PS)’.
Adoption of UTAS is one of the conditions ASUU said must be met by the federal government before the prevailing strike which will be 8 months in two weeks’ time, arguably a full academic session.
But the acting AGF said adoption of UTAS as insisted by ASUU would only open floodgate of similar requests by other agencies and departments of government.
The House Speaker, Hon. Gbajabiamila, had at the meeting, appealed to ASUU to suspend the strike for the sake of the students. He also promised to see to the implementation of the outcome of meetings between the lecturers’ union and government MDAs, assuring that the National Assembly will be a witness to the agreements.
He noted that all the agreements he had with the union in his last meeting are still intact and therefore appealed to the union to cooperate with the MDAs in deciding on the preferred payment platforms.
He also appointed the Chairman, House Community on Education to be a part of the tripartite meeting. “I am happy for the solution on the issue of UTAS. It is no victor, no vanquish: everybody is carried along. And if it is possible to accommodate everything that ASUU wants in UTAS, for me, that is the best way to go,” he said.
He added that the report of the meeting will be ready in days for onward transmission to President Buhari. “Let me just say I believe this would be, hopefully, the last meeting we are going to have on this matter, because from here the leadership of the House will put together our reports, our recommendations and our thoughts, and take it to Mr President. I am hoping that with whatever we have done, ASUU will at least – this is an independent arm of the government – accept in good faith and, hopefully, the government too will accept in good faith so that our children can go back to school and that is what this is all about,” he said.
