Magnus Eze, Enugu
The national leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has begun a two-week warning strike in public universities with effect.
President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said after the union’s National Executive Council meeting in Enugu, yesterday, that the industrial action was to force the government to act on pending issues.
Ogunyemi said members in federal universities were yet to be paid their February salaries because of issues with Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information Service (IPPIS).
He decried the refusal of the Federal Government to accept the alternative platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) developed by ASUU and offered to the government as alternative given the deficiencies inherent in IPPIS.
He said Nigerian universities were under ceaseless siege through imposition of policies which needed to be addressed. He said the deficiency and decay in the institutions were yet to be tackled since 2012 when the government commissioned the Needs Assessment Intervention and Revitalisation Fund.
“In our previous meetings, the Minister of Finance was solely concerned about IPPIS to the point that other issues were not addressed. ASUU urged the government to keep to its words; including several other memoranda of understanding and memoranda of action,” Ogunyemi said.
“Following a comprehensive review of the state of Nigerian universities, we wish to draw the attention of all stakeholders in the university system to an impending crisis in the university system, arising from the non-remittance of third-party deductions from the salaries of our members and non-payment of February 2020 salaries.
“In addition, there are certain outstanding unresolved issues in the 2019 Memorandum of Agreement entered into with the federal government. The renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU/FGN agreement is a case in point. Following the persistent poor funding characteristic of state-owned universities portend a collapse of the system. It is even more disheartening that many States that cannot adequately fund their existing universities are establishing new ones for political gains.
“Having discussed the provisions in the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the 2017 Memorandum of Action (MoA) which have not been implemented, NEC resolved to embark on a two-week warning strike action with effect from Mon March 9, to compel the government to implement the agreement and resolution of action,” Ogunyemi said.
The ASUU President, however, said that the union would reconvene if nothing was done at the expiration of the two weeks to determine its next line of action.