The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nnamdi Azikiwe University chapter has urged the federal government to quickly address their demands including testing and deployment of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for paying their emoluments before they would resume normal academic activities.
The federal government in a recent meeting with the national leadership of ASUU promised to look at UTAS and find ways of testing its efficacy in paying ASUU, which said it was the best system in tackling university peculiarities.
ASUU in a resolution after its emergency meeting signed by Comrade Stephen Ufoaroh, the chapter chairperson, and acting secretary, Peter Okoye, said they agreed that the one week proposed by the federal government to reconstitute the negotiating team was accepted but the strike would not be suspended until the renegotiation “is favourably concluded and signed early enough to be captured in 2021 budget.
“Congress strongly resolved that the renegotiation of 2009 agreement should be the top priority in the current FGN-ASUU negotiations. Congress rejected 20 billion naira offered by the good government and resolved that one hundred per cent of the fund must be paid as initially agreed in 2013 MOU, 2017 MOU and 2019 MOA (1.08 trillion naira outstanding).
“This congress resolution is predicated on the fact that no public university campus as at today can meet up with the minimum requirements for COVID-19 precautionary measures, coupled with the depreciated value of naira. Government should pay the outstanding 40 billion naira as contained in the 2019 of memorandum of action and not the thirty billion naira offered. This will be paid at once and not in tranches before the strike is suspended. The timeline for the visitation panel as adduced by the federal government is accepted.”
The Congress also said it was rejecting IPPIS payment platform totally, maintaining that outstanding salaries and allowances of their members should be paid with UTAS.
