By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Two days to the end of the one-month warning strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), there are indications that the strike may continue.
This is even as ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke has accused Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami and Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa of lying to Nigerians that the Universities Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) failed integrity test.
Professor Osodeke who spoke on Channels Television breakfast programme Sunrise Daily on Friday punctured the claims by both federal government officials that government is still waiting for ASUU to present a secured UTAS platform for certification.
Speaking on the topic: ‘Update on ASUU One-Month Strike’, the ASUU boss posited that contrary to the claims by Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and NITDA DG that ASUU is reviewing UTAS technology after it failed three tests, the system was scored 77% by NITDA.
Said he: “I will say without apologies that Minister Pantami and DG of NITDA lied to Nigerians when the addressed a press conference to tell Nigerians through the media that UTAS failed integrity test when actually it passed the scrutiny”.
“How can DG of NITDA who has not been attending the meeting of the committee set up for that purpose now be talking on what he does not understand. A committee made up of representatives of the Ministries of Education, Labour and Productivity, Finance and Office of the Accountant General of the Federation have been meeting but NITDA DG would not attend”.
Professor Osodeke said: “to be clear, ASUU gave NITDA UTAS to review on March 2021 but the Agency only came out with the result of its findings on January 2022 and scoring UTAS 77% which is a good score by every standard”.
“The truth is that out of 700 items,
UTAS passed 589 of them hence NITDA scored it 77% but when ASUU reviewed the scores it was discovered that UTAS scored over 90% which is a Distinction so how did UTAS fail the integrity test both the Minister and NITDA DG are talking about”.
The ASUU leader insists that UTAS passed all the test with distinction, saying that UTAS passed all the tests conducted by NITDA including User Acceptance Test, Vulnerability Test to check for possibility of hacking, and a Stress Test to prevent the system from crashing as some of the results of the questionnaire sent out by NITDA returned with 80% to 90% approval ratings in favour of UTAS.
He also alleged that NITDA did not subject the Integrated Personnel and Payment Information System (IPPIS) as a salaries payment platform for the Nigerian civil servants to the so called integrity test it has subjected UTAS to.
Professor Osodeke alleged that the refusal of government and its agencies to adopt UTAS may not be unconnected to the notion that the government is defrauding Nigerian workers through IPPIS, arguing that it makes huge amount of money by cutting the salaries of workers to service IPPIS.
According to him: “no lecturer from outside Nigeria will want to teach in Nigeria if they are compelled to queue in front of a Clerical Officer to register for IPPIS”.
On the argument by NITDA DG that it needs to know where to put UTAS system like IPPIS and that ASUU could not come up with where to house the UTAS Data Base or Data Center like the IPPIS, ASUU President laughed it off.
Said he: “Again, this claim is false, IPPIS Data Base/ Center is domiciled in the Accountant General’s Office. We made it known that UTAS Data Center will be housed in the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) and also funded by NUC. This is the fact”.
Asked if the One- month Warning Strike ASUU embarked upon since February 14 will be called off on March 10, Professor Osodeke said federal government and its agencies are yet to come to the round table to resolve the issues which led to the strike action.
Said he: “Its funny that government is settling up another committee which has three months to articulate the issues which led to the strike action.
“It is a ploy. Part of the reasons for the industrial action is that the federal government has refused to accept UTAS as a payment platform to replace the IPPIS but that has not been resolved so how can the strike be called off”.
Meanwhile, the ASUU President has berated the federal government for splashing a whooping $8.5 million for the immediate evacuation of over 5,000 Nigerians fleeing the Russia invasion of Ukraine.
According to him: “it is in the public domain that President Muhammadu Buhari recently approved $8.5 million for immediate evacuation of over 5,000 Nigerians that flee the Russia, Ukrainian war to Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia when government is not releasing money to fix our universities”.
“I can tell you for free that government quickly released $8.5 million to fly back those Nigerian students to Nigeria from Ukraine because they are children of the rich but the same government cannot meet ASUU to resolve the issues which led to the One-Month Warning Strike action”.
