The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will hold its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Sunday to appraise the ongoing strike “to know the next line of action to take.”
The president of the union, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil science, confirmed this on Saturday, however, failed to give the details of the scheduled meeting.
However, a source among the NEC members, who does not want to be quoted to avoid sanctions, said the meeting would hold in Abuja.
On UTAS
Osodeke berated the Nigerian government over its recent disclosure that the University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS) that was developed by the union to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) failed integrity tests.
He said UTAS is currently undergoing another round of tests, saying the earlier tests conducted were not subjected to the peculiarity of universities.
The director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, had said UTAS failed three integrity tests – user acceptance test, vulnerability test, and stress test, which were conducted by his agency.
He said; “We did all these three tests with them and the system couldn’t pass. We wrote the reports and submitted them back to the honourable minister, which he forwarded to all relevant institutions, including ASUU. As we speak now, ASUU is working, trying to fix all the issues we highlighted with the system and we will review it again. But that is just one half of the story.”
But Mr Osodeke accused the government of telling lies. He said UTAS passed between 77 and 85 per cent, adding that “you can’t say a software programme that scored almost 80 per cent failed”.
He said: “Also, we found out that in testing, they didn’t look at the peculiarity of the universities, which we have explained to the meeting we had between Thursday and yesterday (Friday).
“They said they want to do the test again because what they did before was not correct. Those who did it did not know the peculiarities of the universities, which they are doing now. And by the time they are through, you will get a proper report.
“Our technical team are now there with them. They are there with observers from the Ministry of Education, Labour, Accountant General officer, Salaries and Wages commission. Before, they were not there. They just did it on their own.”
Renegotiation
Speaking on the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, the union’s president said the three months given to the renegotiation committee is not for ASUU, adding that the government is yet to reach out to the union on the new development.
He said: “I don’t think the three months is for ASUU. If you look at the terms of reference very well, the three months is for the other unions, not for ASUU, because we are done with the renegotiation.
“They are just supposed to go and look at the document. If there are issues, they come back to us. Those three months, I don’t believe it’s for ASUU. We do hope that they will reach out to us. That is one of the problems we are talking about.
“The strike is in its fourth week now but they have not reverted to us on those issues, which is why we are having problems in the system. Government is not doing its own work”
Earlier in the week, the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, gave a three-month window to the Nimi Briggs-led seven-man committee to look at the draft document and renegotiate the 2009 agreement between the government and university-based workers’ unions including ASUU, the National Association of Academic Technologists, (NAAT), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU).
Speaking earlier on the position of the NEC of the union, the coordinator of the Lagos zone of ASUU, Adelaja Odukoya, had said: “NEC is very clear on its position about the conditions of service. It said until that is resolved, and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) in the university system is achieved, the strike shall continue”
ASUU’s strike, currently in its fourth week was embarked upon to press home some demands it accused the government of failing to meet despite promises.
After several meetings, the major outcome was at last week’s meeting where ASUU agreed to present the government’s proposal to its members.
However the two most important demands that could quench the fire of the strike were the renegotiation of the 2009 federal government-ASUU agreement on the working conditions of Nigerian academics and the deployment of UTAS to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) imposed on universities by the government.
Other demands include the payment of earned academic allowances, revitalisation fund for universities, distortions in the payment of salaries, funding of state universities, and the release of white papers on the visitation panels sent to the universities.
While the minister of education has released the names of the teams to draft the white papers from the reports of the visitation panels, the government is yet to inaugurate them to commence work almost four weeks later.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
