. FG has no budget for UTAS hardware –Ngige
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says there is no hope in sight to suspend its lingering strike due to alleged lack of commitment by the Federal Government
Prof. Theophilus Lagi, the ASUU, Abuja Zonal Coordinator, disclosed this at a news conference on Tuesday at Gwagwalada, Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ASUU, Abuja Zone, comprises the Federal University of Technology, Minna; Nasarawa State University, Keffi; Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai; Federal University of Lafia, and University of Abuja.
Lagi said the strike had lingered for several months as the government had yet to show any serious commitment or willingness towards addressing the unions core demands for students to resume studies.
According to him, members of the union have been advised to seek other legitimate means of survival as the government has not released salaries withheld since February, 2020.
“Today, we wish to let Nigerians especially our students and parents know that there is no hope in sight to ending or suspending the ASUU strike that lingered for long. Government is yet to show serious commitment towards addressing our core demands.
“One needs not to be a psychologist to understand the behavior and recent utterances of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, by showing his disdain for Nigerian Academics and has failed to play the role of an unbiased umpire in moderating the imbroglio.
“He has now become the spokesperson to the Accountant General of the Federation and Ministry of Finance, instead of finding solution for lecturers to get back to work. He is turning the wheel of progress backwards by setting ASUU on collision with other pressure groups in the University.
“In the past few weeks for instance, Ngige has said one thing when he met with the Union and a different thing on the same subject in an interview with the media. This double character of a Minister and a purported negotiator in the face-off should be a source of worry to not only Nigerian students but parents who patronise public universities.
“On this, we will like to educate the Minister that public universities in Nigeria are creatures of law as each University is established by an Act enacted by the National Assembly,” he said.
Lagi maintained that despite agitations with comprehensive and indefinite strike to compel the federal government to address its core demands, government had not shown any commitment.
He however, called on the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, payment and mainstreaming of earned academic allowances into salaries, release of funds for revitalisation of the Nigerian university system among others.
The coordinator condemned the event at Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) where the authority allegedly invited the military to assist in the conduct of the 2019/2020 first semester examinations.
“Another bizarre turn of event is unfolding at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, where a letter written by the Ag. Registrar, Barr. T. M Ikpenwa on 12th November, 2020 inviting the 103 Batalion of the Nigerian Army to assist in the organisation and conduct of the 2019/2020 First semester Examinations.
“Such involvement of the military crack team in a normal University function is primitive and height of insult and lack of regard to the Academia in Nigeria. The union wishes to call on the authorities at ESUT to refrain from the ugly trend because we do not want a repeat of 1976 in Nigerian universities,” he said.
He described the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as better suited in the University system, as it recognised all agreements entered into between government and university -based trade Unions.
Ladi noted that the UTAS platform ensured simultaneous payments of employees’ salaries and third party deductions like tax, pension, Union dues, cooperatives and bank loans.
Meanwhile, there is a new twist in the lingering face -off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the salary payment system, University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) proposed by the lecturers.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, hinted in a chat with State House correspondents in Abuja that even if government accepts the payment mode for lecturers who have rejected being placed on Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS), ASUU procuring the UTAS hardware may pose a problem for implementation.
He said ASUU has no money to procure the corresponding hardware neither did the Federal Government make any budgetary provision for the procurement of the UTAS hardware.
Ngige, however, said government has already forwarded the UTAS software to the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for integrity test, saying that government will not want to discourage any Nigerian from providing homegrown solutions to issues.
Asked if government had shifted grounds on its negotiations with ASUU, the minister stated: “No, the UTAS, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) which they brought is not yet ready. It is not fully ready; it is undergoing integrity test for the software. I am not computer scientist, but you must also know that you must test the hardware in the integrity test for the software.
“As we speak, ASUU has no hardware and UTAS does not have hardware backing. I am waiting for the NITDA full report but the preliminary report they gave me, the software integrity test will take them about six to eight weeks and thereafter, we go to the hardware. But the big issue is, who will provide the hardware?
“ASUU doesn’t have the finances to do so. Has government budgeted for it now as we speak? So, that one is a major problem. But we don’t have to dissuade anybody, we don’t have to tell anybody not to carry on, we like local content development, we need our things to be home grown. So, we are really encouraging them.
“By the time we finish with this other software test to look at its capacity, its ability to withstand shock and hacking etc, the hardware test is in, hacking and security. So, by the time we finish it, we will decide on what to do.
“But do not also forget that we need to have something for us to make payment to them as we speak. For those that have got into the system, they have pointed out some of the deficiency and they are being corrected. it’s work in progress.”
Ngige noted that since ASUU opted out of physical meetings with government because the outbreak of Covid-19, the sessions are just about to resume.
He added: “As you know ASUU is on strike which they started since March 9, 2020 to be precise. We have held meetings, they opted out for the negotiation meetings during the COVID-19 period because they said they don’t want virtual meetings. So, we have just resumed our meeting.
“We have some grey areas to clear and we will meet sometime this week. I’m waiting for one or two reports before I communicate a date to them. The major report is the report from the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as per the system developed by ASUU which the government sent to them for integrity test.”
Strike continues until you meet all our demands, Union vows
Similarly, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed regret over what it described as deceitful disposition of the Federal Government at the expense of Nigerian students.
Addressing journalists in Awka on Tuesday, the Owerri Zonal Coordinator of the body, Comrade Uzo Onyebinama said the body was not ready to call off the strike until all the agreements it had with the government were renegotiated and signed, despite the negative implications on its members.
He stressed that government’s continued delay in meeting their demands may lead to other forces taking over the struggle from ASUU.
Onyebinama said, “NANS has given an ultimatum for this strike to end so that students can return to school, we don’t know their next line of action. But one thing we know is that government doesn’t have all the time to implement these issues we raised. We’ve resolved that until these issues are resolved, and being implemented, we’re not going to go back to classroom because it’s bothered on our salaries and other condition of service.
“Yes, our salaries have not been paid since February, they’ve managed to pay some till June, while some are being owed nine months, some three because of the confusion called IPPIS, we’re still willing to continue in the struggle.”
The union accused the Federal Government of feeding the Nigerian populace with lies over its non- implementation of 2009 FG-ASUU agreement which has led to the lingering strike by the union dismissing it claim of reaching an agreement with it on virtually all the issues that necessitated the strike embarked upon since March.
The coordinator called for the support of both students and parents to prevail on the federal government to do the needful to save the university education from total collapse.
While describing the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as diversionary by the government to overshadow the issues at stake, Onyebinama insisted they would not be cowed by such distractions.
He added, “We said we don’t want further Memorandum of Actions, we want implementations because we’ve had series of them without implementations which had led us to this merry go round of strikes.
Roll call of the meeting include leadership of the body from Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State University, Owerri, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.
