The federal government has agreed to adopt the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) as the payment platform of university lecturers.
Recall that the union has been on strike since February 14 over the government’s failure to implement its demands on salaries and allowances of lecturers, improved funding for universities as well as the adoption of UTAS against the federal government’s preferred payment platform — Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Speaking yesterday on Channels Television programme, the president of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said the federal government invited the union for a meeting on Tuesday (today) on the issue of renegotiation.
He said ASUU will suspend the strike, if the federal government agrees to its demands at today’s meeting.
“We have not had any serious communication though they have invited us for a meeting on one issue, tomorrow (referring to Tuesday), which is the issue of renegotiation.
“You know that there are seven issues why we are on strike. They are inviting for discussion on issue of renegotiation, tomorrow, which is renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.
“The issues of IPPIS and UTAS has been put to rest because the test has been done and it has been agreed with the chief of staff, UTAS will be implemented to cover the university,” he said.
He stated that if the government were serious, the strike would not last for more than two weeks.
Furthermore, Osodeke said ASUU had proposed to begin the strike in November 2021 but had to shelve it to accommodate the various interventions by groups.
“If you recall we were going to suppose to go on strike in November, we didn’t start it because NIREC came in and intervened. We conceded to them.
“They met with the president; he set up a committee headed by the chief of staff that should resolve this quickly, the world saw it in the press, they did nothing. The president set up the Munzali committee; we met them, nothing, they didn’t come
“They set up the Nimi Briggs committee, it’s now more than three months, two months we finished negotiating with them, they didn’t come back. The president directed the Ministry of Education to finish within two weeks, two weeks has passed, they didn’t come back.
“If we go into that meeting tomorrow and government says what we have negotiated, we are willing to sign, the strike will be called off,” he added.
