– The hope of resuming back to the lecture rooms in Nigerian varsities has again hit the bricks
– The meeting between ASUU leadership and the federal government ended in deadlock
– At the meeting held on Wednesday, both parties could not agree on the adoption of UTAS for the payment of N30billion earned allowance.
Again, the meeting between the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government has ended in deadlock, meaning that students and lecturers will have to wait as strike continues.
The meeting, which was held on Wednesday, October 28, hit the rock as both parties failed to reach a unilateral agreement on the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
ASUU had previously presented UTAS, which is its home-grown payment system, to the federal government in place of the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The body was expected to call off its strike and mandate lecturers to resume back to lecture rooms on Wednesday, October 21, after striking an agreement with the representatives of the federal government.
But in a sudden turn of event, the body said it would only end the strike action after its home-grown UTAS has passed the federal government’s integrity test.
However, a federal government team led by the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, refused that the N30billion earned allowance of the lecturers promised earlier be paid through a platform different from IPPIS.
ASUU chairman, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, also stood the ground that the payment should be made through UTAS.
Eventually, both sides agreed to consult their principals, with another meeting scheduled to hold next week Wednesday, November 4.
Meanwhile, ASUU came under attack as the federal government described the condition set by the body before it could end its strike as “unreasonable.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, said ASUU’s demand was ridiculous because varsity lecturers could not determine how they should be paid by their employers which is the federal government.
