The Wednesday meeting between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has ended in a deadlock.
ASUU has been on strike for about eight months. The strike which started in March is to among others compel the federal government to implement the agreements and resolutions reached with the union in 2009 as well as the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the 2017 Memorandum of Action (MoU).
The lecturers were also opposed to the federal government’s move to enforce the use of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, Abubakar Rasheed, were absent from Wednesday’s meeting.
Speaking at the end of the meeting, the labour minister, Chris Ngige, said the government cannot pay the N110 billion ASUU is demanding for the revitalization of universities.
“There are three issues, revitalization fund where the government offered ASUU N20 billion as a sign of good faith based on the MoU they entered into in 2013 as a result of the renegotiation they had with the government in 2009,” he said.
“While we are giving them offers of some fund, this government is not against revitalization but this government says that because of dire economic situation, we cannot really pay the N110 billion which they are demanding for revitalization,” he said.
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On Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), the government offered N30 billion to all the unions in the universities, making a total of N50 billion.
“ASUU is saying that the N30 billion should be for lecturers alone, irrespective of the fact that there are three other unions. So there is a little problem there. We don’t have any money to offer apart from this N30 billion,” he said.
He said a third issue, which he described as the cardinal issue, is the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) versus IPPIS.
“Today ASUU submitted their document on UTAS for onward submission to National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). As you know last week, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy had approved that NITDA gets their system (UTAS) and subject it to integrity test. This test should be conducted without fear or favour and as early as possible. So today they have submitted the document for onward transmission to NITDA,” he said.
“One other issue that has arisen is the issue of the transition period. How do you get the Earned Academic Allowances that is due to you or any other entitlement that the government wants to pay you? They want an exemption from IPPIS and the government side headed by the Accountant General of the Federation said that IPPIS is the only government-approved payment platform. So that is where we are for now,” he said.
Ngige said the government team is going back to their principals and “the union will receive via me the irreducible minimum of what the federal government has to offer.”
He said the federal government’s representatives in the conciliation meeting will reconvene on Friday to agree on the government’s final position.
“The government side will meet on Friday and after that, we will communicate ASUU and in communicating them, if there is a need for a meeting, a date will be fixed for it,” he said.
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