ASUU threatens new strike over IPPIS, others
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU ) has threatened to resume the union action it has suspended since December 2020 over the federal government’s alleged failure to honor many of the agreements it has signed with the union.
The President, ASUU, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Dr. Ibrahim Inuwa, stated this during a conversation with selected journalists at the secretariat of the Union.
He said the protracted strike, which was to put forward their demands for the survival of Nigeria’s public university system, was suspended in December after the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on the various issues with timelines for implementation. of each of the eight articles.
Inuwa, who said that more than seven months after the MoU was signed, only two of the eight issues have been addressed, listed some of the issues, including earned academic stipend, funding for public university revitalization, salary shortfall, state university proliferation, and panel visitation.
Others, he added, include renegotiation, replacement of the Integrated Pay and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), and withholding salaries and non-payment of check-off Dues, but “only salary shortfalls and visitation panels until federal universities have been addressed.”
He said: “Renegotiation of the 2009 agreement that would have been completed within eight weeks from the date of inauguration of the commission has not been concluded so far, although the commission has been inaugurated since December 2020.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria willingly agreed that the UTAS will replace the IPPIS as a payment platform in federal universities after it passes an integrity test. But shortly after the agreement, FGN agents are doing everything they can to frustrate the arrival of UTAS on board.
“Meanwhile, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation through the IPPIS office has continued to omit our members from paying salaries while others are experiencing severe salary amputation. We are convinced that this is done in consultation with the university administration by falsifying the personal details of our members.
“Meanwhile, IPPIS appears to be the corruption headquarters of the Federal Public Service as evidenced by double payment of salaries to employees, payment of salaries to non-employees, overburdening, questionable amputation of salaries, etc.”
Inuwa stated that the federal government’s body language on the proliferation of state universities shows that they are unwilling to put an end to it, and emphasized that instead, the federal government itself has participated in the proliferation of universities and the ignore obvious challenges of financing.
He further stated that it is clear to the Union that the OAGF deliberately withholds its members from paying salaries and withholding dues as a victimization ploy and coercion to enroll ASUU members in IPPIs.
“This plague,” he said, “has been visible in all federal universities in Nigeria since February 2020. This to us is an outright act of ingratitude on the part of the government for the sacrifices made by members of ASUU to establish a forward-thinking nation A clear case of punishing civilians for being patriotic.”
Inuwa stated: “Enough is enough. ASUU has had enough of the deceitful antics of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“University campuses are becoming restless across the board as academics threaten to close again. This comes as a result of the FGN’s failure to implement many aspects of the memorandum of action it voluntarily signed with ASUU that ended the latest strike in December 2020.
“Given the government’s blatant and willful failure to honor the agreement it voluntarily signed with the Union, it is becoming clear that industrial harmony is gradually being destroyed on university campuses.
“We, therefore, call on well-meaning Nigerians to wake the FGN from its slumber to avoid another disruption of academic activity on university campuses across the country,” adding that “the atmosphere is tense and charged.”
