Dr. Ibrahim Inuwa, the Chairperson of the ASUU at Bauchi’s
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, announced this to a group of media at the
Union’s Secretariat.
He said the long-running strike, which was intended to press
their demands for the continued existence of Nigeria’s public university
system, was called off in December after the two parties agreed to a Memorandum
of Understanding on the various issues, which included timelines for
implementing each of the eight items.
Earned Academic Allowance, Funding for revitalisation of
public universities, Salary shortage, Proliferation of state universities, and
Visitation Panel, according to Inuwa, have been addressed only two out of the
eight issues seven months after the MoU was signed.
Renegotiation, the replacement of the Integrated Payroll and
Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with the University Transparency and
Accountability Solution (UTAS), withheld salaries, and non-remittance of
Check-off Dues are among the others, according to him, but “only salary
shortfall and visitation panels to federal universities have been addressed.”
He said, “Renegotiation of the 2009 agreement which would
have been completed within eight weeks from the date of inauguration of the
committee has up till now not been concluded, even though the Committee was
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 passed an integrity test. However, soon after the agreement, agents of the
FGN are doing everything possible to frustrate the coming of UTAS onboard.
“Meanwhile the Office of the Accountant General of the
Federation through the IPPIS office have continued to omit our members from
payment of salaries while others experience serious salary amputation. We are
convinced this is done in connivance with the University Administration through
the distortion of our members’ personal details.
“In the meantime, IPPIS appears to be the corruption
headquarters of the Federal Civil service, as exemplified by double payment of
salaries to employees, payment of salaries to non-employees, over taxation,
dubious amputation of salaries, etc.”
Inuwa stated that the body language of the federal
government on the proliferation of State Universities shows that they are not
willing to put a stop to it stressing that instead, the federal government itself
has joined in the Proliferation of Universities ignoring the obvious challenges
of funding.
He further stated that it is obvious to the Union that the
OAGF is deliberately omitting its members from payment of Salaries and
withholding check off dues as a ploy for victimization and coercion to enroll
ASUU members into IPPIs.
“This plague,” he said, “has been evident across 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 members of ASUU
are making in order to establish a progressive nation. A clear case of
punishing citizens for being patriotic.”
Inuwa declared that “Enough is enough. ASUU is fed up with
deceptive antics of the federal government of Nigeria.
“The University Campuses are becoming restive across the
length and breadth as Academics are threatening to shut down activities once
again. This is coming as a result of the failure of the FGN to implement many
aspects of the memorandum of Action it willingly signed with ASUU that ended
the last strike in December, 2020.
“Given the glaring and deliberate failure of Government to
honour the agreement it willingly signed with the Union, it is becoming obvious
that industrial harmony is gradually being destroyed in the University
Campuses.
“We, therefore, call on well-meaning Nigerians to wake up
the FGN from its slumber to avoid another disruption of academic activities on
Universities Campuses across the nation” adding that “the atmosphere is tensed
and charged.”