From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

Academic Staff Union of Universities ( ASUU) has  said it does not trust the Federal Government to keep its promise to university lecturers,  owing to failure to honour past agreements.

Its president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this, at the resumed meeting between the union, Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Sylva Okolieaboh and Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday, in Abuja.

Osodeke, who led ASUU leaders to the meeting told Gbajabiamila that the union called off its eight months strike,  based on trust  in the speaker, owing to his commitment to the resolution of issues with the government.

“We didn’t reach full understanding, before we called off the strike because we did that on trust. It was just on trust and the way we had meetings with the speaker, it was that way we’re able to convince them. I think we should also look at other issues and reach a very meaningful conclusion on them.

“What we agreed on the issue of UTAS and IPPIS is a temporary measure because for a country like Nigerian, if we are really patriotic and we love this country, if there is a problem in payment, you challenge your university to develop a programme for you. So, this idea of others will bring their own is not true. We were challenged to produce it.

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“We have agreed on IPPIS as an interim measure, hopefully, subsequently, we will look for how to solve this problem once and for all.”     

Gbajabiamila, at the resumed parley, thanked ASUU for calling off its strike, noting that the meeting was convened to discuss issues surrounding the payment platform, which was one of the contentious issues between the government and the university lecturers.

The Speaker,  while responding to concerns that government has repeatedly failed  to honour previous agreements with ASUU, said that in the past, the National Assembly was not part of any  of the negotiations.

“I  thank you for ending the strike. I assure you everything will be done to make sure that the issue remains resolved. The best way to move forward is to have the Accountant General tell us the way forward. You called off the strike based on trust, and I appreciate that. If we are now asking for a signed document, where’s the place of trust?

“Let’s give it time. I have written to the ministry on the issue of the white paper. We are taking these things one by one. We have N500 billion in the budget and so on and so forth. Let bygones be bygones. Let us tarry a while and see. An agreement has been made, we are here to make sure that the agreement is practical and not theoretical,” he said.