Federal Government has been accused of frustrating moves to resolve issues prolonging the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) .
The National President of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, speaking on Thursday during a live programme " Politics Today", broadcast on Channels Television, expressed concern that the Federal Government has refused to take the necessary steps in addressing the strike action.
Edu-Biznews recalled that both parties again ended their last meeting on Wednesday in a deadlock , twice within a week, as they failed to agree on platform for payment of the striking Lecturers salaries and N40billion earned allowances due to them.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who led the government negotiating team had offered to pay the salary arrears and the N30bn Earned Allowances of the university lecturers through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System platform pending the roll-out of ASUU’s preferred platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution.
But the ASUU delegation led by Ogunyemi insisted that the payment should be made through the UTAS.
The government's delay in adopting ASUU’s preferred platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution according to him, is one of the major reasons why the strike has not been suspended.
,“The strike is still on as a result of the government not taking the necessary steps. We gave them two weeks to address our five points demands'",he declared.
His words“We engaged the government but they were not forthcoming. They had a whole year to address those issues. They gave us positions that were not acceptable to our members.
The ASUU President said that the union had thought that the issues were almost resolved during its first meeting with government but the issues still remain “During our first meeting, we thought they were almost resolving the issues.
“What compounded the problem is the issue of IPPIS. We have said that it is a distraction. There is no university in the world that IPPIS is being used.
ASUU according to Ogunyemi, “has done three presentations of UTAS to the Minister of Education and his team, the leadership of Senate and Office of the Accountant-General. They only agreed that UTAS is accepted in principles".
“We are almost getting UTAS approved but government is saying that our members should first migrate to IPPIS before returning to UTAS. That makes no economic sense. The government has made it difficult for smooth negotiation. They said our members will be paid when they move to IPPIS.”, he explained.
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