By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
For the umteempt time the federal government has stated that it will not accede to the demand by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for their members to be paid the backlog of salaries withheld over the ongoing strike, saying it is meant to be the
penalty for their “needless action”.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, stated the government position on Thursday in Abuja while appearing on the Ministerial Media Briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Adamu insisted that not paying the backlog of salaries to the striking lecturers will deter other federal government workers who may contemplate strike in future.
The Minister said the strike by the university-based unions came despite the trillions of naira expended on education by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari directly as well as by agencies such as TEFFUND and UBEC.
Adamu however disclosed that five of the university-based Unions that went on sympathy strike with ASUU will call off their strike actions within the next one week while he was silent on the fate of ASUU members.
He stated that government rejected ASUU’s demand to be paid the salary backlog because it believes that there has to be penalties for their action.
However, he noted that ASUU had begun consultations with their members to determine whether to call off their strike as well.
Adamu revealed that the University Perculiar Personnel and Payroll System (U3PS) and the the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) outscored the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) during the integrity tests conducted, affiming that ASUU ‘s peculiarities will be accommodated in whatever platform that may me adopted.
He said the UTAS has not been approved by government as being speculated.
