By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Signs that university campuses may remain iddle for a longer time have emerged as the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the Federal Government and its agencies of gross insincerity.
Specifically, ASUU has blamed the current nationwide “one month warning strike” on the insincerity of the Ministers of Education, its Labour and Productivity counterpart and the Chief of Staff to the President who are negotiating for the government.
This weighty accusation was made on Tuesday by ASUU Vice President, Dr. Christopher Piwuna while fielding questions on Channels Television breakfast programme Sunrise Daily monitored in Abuja.
According to Dr. Piwuna the incessant ASUU strikes were as a result of the unresolved issues with the federal government bordering on the
welfare of academic staff and the deteriorating state of educational institutions in Nigeria among others.
Said he: “the federal government representatives namely Ministry of Education, Labour and Productivity and Chief of Staff to the President are insincere to the course. They have not shown commitment to the agreements reached with ASUU as they have always reneged on agreements reached with us”.
The ASUU top official insists that ASUU demands are for the good of the Nigerian university system, pointing out that the current sorry state of Nigerian universities call for a rethink.
Dr. Piwuna claims that federal has continued to owe ASUU backlogs of 2020 and 2021 Earned Academic Allowances, funding for Revitalisation of Public Universities, University Transparency Accountability Solution.
Others are renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, and the inconsistencies in Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System Payment.
Said he: Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige’s claims that UTAS, an App developed by Nigerian universities failed series of test conducted by federal government agency is not true.
He insists that UTAS Instead, UTAS passed several tests but government agencies would not have any of that”.
The ASUU Vice President however accused National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) of plagiarism, alleging that NITDA
plagiarized documents concerning UTAS which it presented to government to discredit UTAS.
He stated that there is a deliberate attempts by federal government and its agencies to keep undermining ASUU efforts to ensure that the country’s university education is improved.
Dr. Piwuna insists that ASUU will continue to fight on as long as federal government excesses continue, arguing that there are clear cases of government living lavishly by one top official going on convoy of seven to ten cars at the expense of Nigerians and institutions like the universities.
Meanwhile, ASUU Vice President has said that the one month warning strike could be called off immediately should the federal government listen to the voice of reason such as the Royal Fathers and Religious Leaders who intervened but several months later federal government did not do anything about ASUU demands.
Said he: “Who said the strike can’t end in one week. Who said the strike must last for one month. If the federal government meets our demands today (Tuesday) the strike will end”.
