The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has put the blame on the ‘door step’ of the Federal Government for the lingering strike by the lecturers, as they have frustrated all efforts to resolve critical issues.
The National Chairman of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, while speaking on a political programme on Channels Television, ‘Politics Today’, claimed that the Federal Government refused to take the necessary steps in addressing the issue.
Prof.Ogunyemi stated that the Federal Government’s delay in adopting ASUU’s preferred platform, the UniversityTransparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), is one of the major reasons the strike has continue to linger.
The ASUU boss said: “The strike is still on as a result of the federal government not taking the necessary steps. We gave them two weeks to address our five point demands.
“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.
“During our first meeting, we thought they were almost resolving the issues.
“What compounded the problem is the issue of IPPIS. We have said it is a distraction. There is no university in the worlds that uses IPPIS.
“We have done three presentations of UTAS to the Minister of Education and his team, the leadership of the Senate and the Office of the Accountant-General. They only agreed that UTAS is acceptable in principles.
“We are almost getting UTAS approved but the 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.”
Recall that Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, while speaking at the University of Abuja, Gwagwalada Campus, in an interactive session with pressmen insisted that the government must pay salaries of some the members that have not been paid and development of an alternative to the IPPIS, called UTAS.
